-----

Samantha loved playing in her backyard. Lush, green grass was edged by fragrant, flowering bushes. It always smelled so pretty in her yard. What she loved most, though, was that the backyard was hers and hers alone. She didn’t have any brothers or sisters and the only time anyone else was out there with her was when Constance, the maid and Samantha’s governess, came out to water the flowers. She played by herself all day and she absolutely loved it.

Even though she was only six, she enjoyed being alone. Her mother thought she was punishing her when she sent her to her room, but the truth was she liked her bedroom just as much as the backyard. She would be left alone for hours and while she was supposed to be “thinking about what she had done”, as her mother put it, she’d be playing with her dollhouse completely and totally uninterrupted.

“Samantha! Get in here this instant, child!”

The little girl jumped up and turned towards the house, trying to wipe the green stains off her dress. She wondered what was wrong now. It seemed that her mother was getting more and more angry with each passing day and for whatever reason, she was taking it out on Samantha.

“I said get in here, Samantha!” Her mother rushed outside and grabbed the girl by the arm. “Oh, grass stains on your new dress! That’s just great.” She dragged the girl into the house, allowing the screen door to slam shut behind her.

“Ow!” Samantha cried. “Mama, you’re hurting me!”

“Good, you little brat. Didn’t I tell you to stay out of my room?”

“I did stay out of your room, Mama, I swear!” She started to cry, knowing for sure what was coming.

“Then how did all my jewelry get tangled again, hmm?” She grabbed her daughter’s other arm and squeezed, giving her a violent shake.

“I don’t know, I promise!” She tried to pull out of her mother’s grasp.

“Stop it!” With one quick motion, she let go of her arm and slapped Samantha across the face. The little girl broke down in sobs, cupping her cheek in the palm of her hand. Taking advantage of the girl’s vulnerability, she dragged her up the stairs, tripping every so often on her long, flowing dress. Once upstairs, she gave her daughter a small shove into her bedroom. “You’re going to stay up here until I say you’re ready to come down.”

Samantha flopped down onto her brass bed as her mother slammed the door shut. After crying for a good twenty minutes, she finally started to calm down. She got up off the bed and slipped into place at her dollhouse, rubbing her stinging cheek. She was pretty sure there was a handprint there, but she was afraid to check.

With shaking hands, she picked up the mother doll and the daughter doll and set them both up in the kitchen. The mother was standing at the tiny iron stove, making tea, and the daughter was standing at her side, watching her intently. This is how it should be, Samantha thought, sniffling. Why couldn’t her mother be like that?

“Prudence! Piper! Time for lunch!”

Prue and Piper jumped up from their seats on the floor of the playroom, grinning at each other. Prue ran out of the room first and telekinetically moved a large ball in front of Piper. “Hey!” Piper yelled as she stepped around the around the ball before she tripped on it. “That’s not fair! I can’t use my power on you.”

“Oh well,” Prue giggled, running into the kitchen with Piper hot on her heels.

“Whoa! Girls, stop running in the house.” Patty set the girls’ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches down on the table.

“Now sit up at the table and eat your lunch.”

Prue climbed into her chair as Patty scooped Piper up and placed her in the booster seat on the chair across from Prue.

“Ha, Piper still has to sit in the baby seat,” Prue teased before taking a bite out of her sandwich.

“Shut up!” Piper yelled.

“Piper, we don’t say that in this house,” Patty gently scolded her daughter. “And Prue, you were still sitting in the booster seat when you were three, too.”

Piper stuck her tongue out at Prue as if to say, “So there.” Prue made a face back. Rolling her eyes, Piper focused her attention on eating her lunch. Peanut butter and jelly was her favorite meal and liked to savor every bite.

After a few minutes, Prue finished, but Piper was only halfway done. Getting antsy, Prue started kicking Piper’s chair to get her to hurry up. “Stop!” Piper yelled.

“Girls . . .” Patty started with a sigh.

“Mama, she’s kicking my chair and she won’t stop!” Piper whined.

“She’s bothering me,” Prue countered, narrowing her eyes at her sister.

“I’m not doing anything!”

“Girls!” Patty slammed a frying pan down on the counter with a loud bang. Prue and Piper jumped at the sound. They both looked over, terrified. They had never seen their mother so angry. “Keep quiet and eat your lunch.”

Piper finished her sandwich without another word. Prue, watching her, could tell she was trying not to cry. When Piper was done, Prue spoke up almost hesitantly. “Mom, we’re done.”

Patty wordlessly walked over to the table, lifted Piper out of the booster seat, and wiped her face. Prue collected her plate as well as Piper’s and, standing on tiptoes, set them in the sink. “Thank you, Prue. Now, you two go back and play. If I hear any more fighting, one of you is going to be sent to your room and the other one’s going to be sent to my room. You understand?”

“Yes, Mommy.” Prue took Piper’s hand and gently tugged her out of the kitchen and back into the playroom. Once they were alone, Piper looked up at Prue, tears glistening in her eyes. She seemed almost afraid to talk at all. “Oh, Piper, it’s okay.”

“Mama’s never yelled at us before,” she whispered.

“I know,” Prue said, nodding. “I don’t know why she did, but it’s over. It’s okay now.”

Piper nodded and seated herself on the floor, playing with some wooden blocks. Even though Prue had eased Piper’s mind, she herself was still worried. Piper was right; their mother had never yelled at them before and there was something about the look in her mother’s eyes that had made Prue very uneasy. They weren’t hers at all. Her mother’s eyes were warm and inviting, but when she yelled at them, her eyes were almost cold.

Penny opened the front door, the grocery bags in her arms slipping out of her grasp. She sighed and shifted that packages before she dropped them. She closed the door with a quiet grunt and headed down the hallway. Something seemed different to her, but she didn’t put her finger on what exactly it was until se got into the kitchen. There was no noise. That seemed almost impossible in a house with a three-year-old and a five-year- old, but it was true. There was not a sound in the whole house.

She set the groceries down on the counter, calling out to her daughter. Maybe she had taken the girls down to the park. “Patty, darling! Are you here? The girls are so quiet, they must be up to something.”

Patty walked into the kitchen from the backyard. Her face was blank, almost as if she was in a trance. “The girls are in the playroom.”

“What’s wrong, Patty?”

She sat at the table and waited for her mother to sit down with her. Once she did, she looked up at her mother with tears in her eyes. “Uh, the girls are quiet because they’re scared of me right now. And the thing is? I’m kind of scared of me, too.”

“Okay, sweetie, you’re rambling,” Penny said, placing her hand comfortingly over her daughter’s. “Start from the beginning.”

Patty sighed and closed her eyes. Everything that had happened was starting to become a little fuzzy. “I called them in for lunch and they were bickering like they always do, but for some reason, it was really getting on my last nerve. Everything they were saying was just driving me up the wall. I snapped. I slammed a pan down on the counter and yelled at them. They’ve been extremely quiet ever since, almost like they’re afraid to even talk.”

Penny looked her daughter over. While it sounded a little upsetting, it didn’t seem like it was all that bad. So what was upsetting Patty so much? “Well, honey, every mother yells from time to time”

“But this was different,” she interrupted. “I can’t really explain how, but it was different. Usually, their fighting doesn’t even faze me, but today . . . I can’t believe the rage I was feeling.”

Penny sighed, completely at a loss. “Maybe you’re just tired. Why don’t you go upstairs and lie down for a couple of hours? You don’t have to be at work until six.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” She stood up with a sigh and stretched slightly. “I’ll be upstairs if you need me.”

“Okay, darling.” She watched her daughter leave the kitchen, then she stood up and started putting away the groceries.

All the while, she kept thinking about what Patty had told her. Something had obviously upset her. Maybe she was just feeling tired and overwhelmed, but could it have been something else? She had no idea what that something else could be, but still, she wondered. Once she finished with the groceries, she headed straight for the playroom to ask her granddaughters what had happened.

-----

“She yelled at us, Grams,” Piper said around her thumb. She only sucked her thumb when she was very upset, and this qualified as one of those times. “I mean, we shouldn’t have been fighting, but she’s never yelled at us before.”

Penny scooped her granddaughter up and sat down on the sofa in the corner, holding her on her lap. She then motioned for Prue to come sit down next to her. Prue complied, snuggling up next to her grandmother. “Girls, your mom didn’t mean to yell at you. You’re right, Piper. You two shouldn’t have been fighting. But she only yelled because she’s tired. You know how you get cranky when you’re tired?” Piper nodded without removing her thumb from her mouth. “Well, adults can get cranky, too.”

The girls were silent for a moment before Prue spoke up quietly. “Something didn’t feel right, though.”

Penny looked down at her granddaughter, wondering if there was in fact something more to this story. After all, Patty and the girls seemed awfully upset for something so trivial. “What is it, darling?”

Prue dropped her gaze to her hands. Maybe I should tell her to forget it, she thought. She wasn’t exactly sure if anything out of the ordinary had happened and she didn’t want to worry her family needlessly. Still, she felt uneasy about the whole thing. Her mother had gotten angry with them before, but never like that. She sighed, then looked back up at her grandmother. “There was a look in her eyes that was . . . I don’t know, scary, I guess. I can’t explain it. It just didn’t seem like it was really her.”

Penny leaned down and kissed the top of Prue’s head. “It’s okay, honey. You’re just not used to having someone yell at you.”

“No, Grams, I mean it!” Prue exclaimed so loudly that Piper jumped and took her thumb out of her mouth. “Something was wrong with her.”

“Okay, darling. I’ll go up and talk to her, all right?”

Prue nodded as she watched her grandmother stand up and set Piper down next to Prue. Prue wrapped her arm protectively around her sister’s shoulders. Piper stuck her thumb into her mouth and rested her head against Prue’s shoulder, closing her eyes. “It’s almost naptime,” Prue said by way of an explanation.

“You’re right, it is,” Penny answered with a gentle smile. “Tell you what. How about I tuck you girls in and I’ll talk to

your mom. Then we can forget about this whole thing.”

“Okay!” Piper exclaimed, grinning. She jumped up and slipped one hand into Prue’s and the other into her grandmother’s. “Come on!”

Prue sighed as Piper half-dragged her to the stairs. Something about what had happened that afternoon was still making her uneasy, but if everyone else was willing to just forget about it, she supposed she should, too. The only thing was she didn’t know if she could.

It had been days since Patty had yelled at the girls. It was even beginning to feel like nothing had ever happened. Patty was back to smiling and laughing, and even when she had to reprimand the girls, she was able to do it in her usual gentle manner. Piper had stopped sucking her thumb and had started bickering with Prue again. Everything, it seemed, was back to normal.

However, Prue was still a little uneasy. Everyone had written that day off as simply a bad day, and to an extent, Prue believed that. But still, though she couldn’t explain exactly why, something just wasn’t sitting right with her.

“Prue, look!” Piper exclaimed from the doorway of the bedroom.

Prue glanced up from her coloring book to look at her sister. Piper was dressed up in one of Patty’s dresses, which was so big on her that she had to hold it on. She had a pair of her mom’s high heels on her feet and a long pearl necklace that hung down to her stomach was around her neck. She looked so ridiculous that Prue couldn’t help but giggle. “You look silly!”

“I do not!” Piper retorted. “Come play with me.”

Prue looked down at the picture she was coloring, then back up at Piper. Her sister seemed to be having more fun than she was, so she grinned, climbed down from her bed, and followed Piper as she clomped back to Patty’s room.

Once she was in her mom’s room, Prue pulled a blue dress out of the closet and slipped it on over her head. She had to hold hers up as well, but it fit her a little better than the other dress fit Piper. Then, she ran to the jewelry box, pulled out a gold chain with a small diamond solitaire, and hung it around her neck. After a bit more searching, she grabbed a thin gold bracelet and ran to Piper. “Look at this! Isn’t it pretty?”

“It is!” Piper exclaimed. She had found Patty’s makeup and was in the middle of smearing red lipstick on her lips. “Can I see?”

“Just let me wear it for a second,” Prue answered as she slipped it onto her wrist. It dangled quite a bit, so she kept her arm level to keep it from falling off. “Can I see the lipstick?”

“When I get the bracelet, you can get the makeup.”

“Piper, that’s not fair!”

“Oh well,” Piper said with a mischievous grin. She put the lipstick down and picked up the eyeshadow.

Before Piper could bring her hand to her eye, Prue swiped at her arm, trying to get the makeup away from her. Piper swiped back, catching the bracelet in her fingers. She pulled her hand back, the bracelet snapped, curling around Piper’s fingers. Piper stared down at her hand, too surprised to cry. Then she looked back up at Prue, her eyes wide. “Oh, Mama’s going to kill me!”

Prue grabbed the bracelet and ran back to the jewelry box, burying the bracelet underneath the other jewelry. She took off her necklace, threw it back into the box, then motioned for Piper to toss her the pearls. “If I do this right, she’ll never know.”

“I’ll never know what?”

Prue whirled around in the direction of the voice. Patty was leaning against the doorjamb, her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes glittering with anger. The look on her face was the same as it was the other day. Prue cleared her throat nervously before answering. “Um, nothing. We were just--”

“I thought I told you two to stay out of my room.” She stalked into the bedroom and snatched the pearls out of Piper’s hand.

Piper glanced over at Prue, terror in her eyes. Prue tried to silently tell her that it was going to be okay, but she knew she looked scared, too. “You’ve never told us to stay out of your room,” she answered uneasily.

“Don’t talk back to me.” She rushed to the jewelry box and pushed Prue out of the way. She dug around for a little bit and came up with the broken bracelet. Holding it between her thumb and her forefinger, she turned around and stared angrily at the girls. Prue backed away slowly and sat down on the bed next to Piper, holding her protectively. “Which one of you broke it?”

Neither girl said a word. Patty stepped forward menacingly. “Answer me! Which one of you broke the bracelet?”

“I did,” Prue said softly. Piper opened her mouth to say something, but Prue elbowed her to keep her quiet. Piper was upset enough; Prue didn’t want her getting punished, especially when their mom was so angry.

There was a slight pause, then Patty leaned down, grabbed Prue’s arm violently, and slapped Prue’s face. When Piper started crying out of fear, Patty slapped her, too. As soon as her hand met Piper’s cheek, she gasped, almost as if she was just realizing what she was doing. The angry look in her eyes disappeared and was replaced by one of pure shock. “Oh, girls, I’m so sorry!” She pulled her daughters into a tight hug. “Shh, don’t cry. I’m so sorry.”

Prue pulled away from her mother, tears brimming in her eyes. “Why’d you hit us?”

“I don’t know,” she cried as her own tears fell down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to, you girls have to believe that.”

Piper, still cradled in her mother’s arms with one hand over her aching cheek, glanced over at Prue. Prue met Piper’s eyes and shook her head slightly. This was totally wrong. Up until a few days ago, the girls had never really been punished and now, they had been not only yelled at, but hit as well. What bothered Prue so much wasn’t that they had been punished, but the fact that her mother was not acting like herself at all. “Piper, come on,” Prue said, reaching over to take her sister’s free hand.

“Prue, wait” Patty started.

“It’s okay, Piper,” Prue continued comfortingly, pulling Piper out of her mother’s lap. “Let’s go color.”

“Girls, I am so sorry.”

“It’s all right, Mommy,” Prue said as she wrapped her arms around Piper’s shoulders. “We’re just going to color in our room.”

She led Piper out of their mother’s bedroom and into their own, closing the door tightly behind herself. Once she was sure they were alone, she pried Piper’s hand away from her cheek to examine it. It was a little red, but other than that, it seemed fine. “Prue, what’s wrong with Mama?” Piper asked, sniffling.

“I don’t know,” Prue answered with a nervous sigh, “but I’m going to talk to Grams when she comes home. She’ll know what to do, I know she will.”

-----

Patty stood in the doorway of the girls’ bedroom, watching her daughters sleep. She hadn’t talked to them for the rest of that day. She hadn’t even tucked them in that night. They seemed to be avoiding her and she couldn’t say as though she blamed them. They seemed as afraid of her as she was of herself. She could find no explanation for what had happened that afternoon, and the fact that she lost control for seemingly no reason frightened her.

“Patty, go on back to bed, darling.”

Patty turned around and met Penny’s eyes for a moment, then turned back to watch the girls, shaking her head. “They look so peaceful. You think they’re sleeping all right?”

Penny peeked into the room past Patty’s shoulder. Prue was curled up on her side, hugging a teddy bear tightly to her chest and Piper was lying on her back, her thumb in her mouth, but both appeared to be sleeping deeply. “They look perfectly fine to me. Patty, go back to bed.”

“No.”

Penny placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “Sweetie, you have to forgive yourself. Things like this happen sometimes.”

“Not like this, Mom,” Patty said, a lump forming in her throat. “This didn’t just happen. I saw the broken bracelet and I flipped out. I don’t know why, either, because it’s not like it was a good bracelet. I was like . . . I don’t know, like I was looking for an excuse to hit them.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Just what I said.” Patty closed the girls’ bedroom door and faced her mother as she leaned back against the wall. “I wanted to hurt them. Prue copped to breaking the bracelet, so I hit her. When Piper started crying, it was the perfect opportunity to hit her, too. What the hell kind of mother wants to hurt her kids?”

“Honey, I--”

“Just forget it,” Patty said with a heavy sigh. “Nothing you can say is going to make this better. I’m a monster.”

“No, you’re not,” Penny said sternly. “You are not a monster. Something is going on here and I’m going to figure out what it is, I promise you that.”

“What if you can’t?” Patty asked, tears welling in her eyes.

Penny looked her daughter directly in the eye. “That’s not an option. I have to figure it out. It’s as simple as that."

Prue had been trying to avoid direct contact with her mother since the day she had hit her. It had only been a couple of days and the pain and fear she had felt was still very fresh in her mind. Even though her mom had apologized countless time, she still couldn’t bring herself to trust her that much. She felt a little guilty for avoiding her so much, especially since nothing bad had happened since that afternoon, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

Her grandmother had been spending a lot of time in the attic. Prue tried to follow her, but every time she did, she was told to stay downstairs with Piper. However, even spending time with Piper was getting harder for her. Piper was very trusting and forgiving by nature and even though she was still a little nervous around Patty, she couldn’t bear to be away from her for too long.

Prue was sitting in the playroom by herself, lazily putting together a jigsaw puzzle, when Penny rushed down the stairs and headed for the front door. Prue stood up and walked to the door of the playroom, confused. “Grams, where are you going?”

“I just have to go to the Historical Society for an hour or two,” she said as she shrugged on her coat. “Will you keep an eye on your sister for me, please?”

Prue hesitated a moment before answering. Keeping an eye on Piper would mean coming into contact with her mother. But she also knew that her grandmother was counting on her. “Sure, Grams. Just . . .” She stopped, shaking her head. “Never mind.”

“No, what is it, darling?”

“Just hurry back, okay?”

Penny nodded sympathetically. “Sure. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Prue nodded and watched her grandmother leave the house, then she sighed and headed out of the room to find her sister. After checking the rest of the downstairs cautiously, she found both Piper and her mother in the kitchen. Patty was making the girls’ lunch and Piper was standing on tiptoe by her legs, trying to see over the counter. The radio was on and Piper giggled as Patty hummed along and twirled one of Piper’s pigtails around her finger. Prue was comforted by the scene and walked into the kitchen, singing along quietly with the radio.

Patty turned around with a smile. “Hey, sweetie. Lunch is almost ready. Did I hear the door a little bit ago?”

“Yeah, Grams had to go to the Historical Society,” Prue answered as she climbed into her chair at the table. “She said she’d be back as soon as she can.”

Patty nodded wordlessly and turned back to the task at hand. As she was finishing the sandwiches, the air in the room suddenly turned cold. Prue got a strange feeling that something was going to happen and whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good. “Mama, can you cut the crusts off mine?” Piper asked, seemingly oblivious to the change in the atmosphere.

“You’re a big girl now,” Patty answered with an exasperated sigh. “I think you can eat the crusts today.”

“But I don’t like the crusts, Mama.”

“Too bad,” Patty said. She set the plates down on the table and turned to Piper, motioning for her to come to the table.

“But you never make me eat the crusts,” she said, her voice small and uncertain.

Patty rushed across the kitchen and grabbed Piper’s arm, twisting it around so that it hurt. “Now you’re not getting up from the table until you eat them. Maybe next time, you’ll think twice about talking back to me.” She picked Piper up and sat her in the booster seat, pushing the chair in tightly. “Eat. Now.”

Piper glanced up at Prue, complete terror in her eyes. Prue put her finger to her lips, silently telling her sister to just eat quickly and then they would get out of there. Piper nodded and picked up her sandwich, nibbling on the crust. If she had to eat them, she was going to eat them first.

Patty set a glass of milk down in front of Prue and one down in front of Piper. As she took her hand off of Piper’s glass, her ring caught the rim and the whole glass tipped over, milk spilling all over the table and dripping onto the floor. Patty cursed, grabbed a napkin, and glared down at Piper. “Now look what you did, you little brat.”

“Mama, I didn’t even touch it!” Piper protested through her tears.

“What did I say about talking back to me?” She grabbed Piper out of the seat and set her down, giving her shoulders one quick, violent shake.

“Ow! Mama, you’re hurting me!”

“Good!” Patty said, squeezing her shoulders even tighter. “You’re going to spend the afternoon in your room, thinking about what you’ve done.”

“But she didn’t do anything!” Prue exclaimed as she jumped out of her seat.

Patty wheeled around and glared at Prue. “Do you want to be spending the afternoon in my room?”

Prue edged backwards a couple of steps. “No, but--”

“Then I suggest you stay out of this.” She reached down, grabbed Piper’s arm, and dragged her out of the kitchen. Even though Piper was trying her hardest to pull away, Patty managed to get her upstairs and to her room. Prue followed the two of them, trying to get her mom to snap out of whatever it was that seemed to be taking her over.

Patty pushed Piper into the bedroom and slammed the door closed. Piper immediately started pounding on the door, screaming and crying to be let out. “Let me out, please! I won’t do anything bad ever again!”

“Shut up!” Patty hollered.

“You said we don’t say that in this house,” Prue yelled at her mother.

Patty turned around, her brown eyes cold and angry. “You’re too smart for your own good.” She gripped Prue’s arms tightly and kept squeezing.

Prue was terrified, but she stood her ground. “Mommy, why are you doing this to us?”

“Because you two are disobedient little brats that need to be disciplined.”

Prue squinted her eyes out of reflex. To her surprise, her mother let her go and stumbled backwards. She couldn’t believe that her power had worked. She had never been able to use her telekinesis on her mother before, but she didn’t have time to think about it. As fast as she could, she opened the door, took Piper by the hand and dragged her down the stairs. The two sisters ran out of their house next door to Andy’s.

Penny walked up to the receptionist at the front desk of the Historical Society. “Hi, I’d like to know if there’s any way to find out who lived at 1329 Prescott Street prior to 1906.”

“Sure,” she answered with a smile. She stood up and led Penny to a small corner of the building where the census records were kept. “These records date back to the 1800 census. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, let me know and I’ll see if I can dig up the old title deeds.”

“Thank you very much,” she smiled. The woman nodded and left Penny to do her research.

Penny had no idea if the census records would be of any help to her, but she had to try. She knew that her ancestors had built the Manor in 1906 to claim the spot for good, and now she was wondering who or what had been there before.

The names listed at the address in the 1900 census were Brian Clifton, his wife Laurel, and their daughter Samantha. The next two years had the same information, but in 1903, Brian’s name disappeared. Laurel and Samantha were still listed at the address, so Penny assumed that either Brian and Laurel had gotten divorced or that he had died. She was leaning towards the latter, since she knew that divorce was not all that prevalent in Victorian America. In fact, it was almost unheard of. Laurel and Samantha stayed at the address until the earthquake of 1906, which destroyed their house. The 1907 census was the first one that listed the Halliwell ancestors as the residents at the address.

Laurel. Something about that name was strangely familiar to her, but she couldn’t remember where she had heard it before. However, now that she had names, she could search for details about the family.

After about ten minutes of searching through old newspapers, she found what she was looking for. In the issue dated February 10, 1903, there was an article on Brian’s death. He was only twenty-eight and even though he had been perfectly healthy, his death was ruled as death from natural causes. The paper also gave the ages of the rest of the family. Laurel was twenty- six and Samantha was only five. Just as old as Prue is, she thought sadly. It seemed so unfair for a little girl to lose her father so young.

She was about to see if she could find any more information on the family when she suddenly remembered why the name had seemed so familiar. She had read about a Laurel in the Book of Shadows. I have to get home, she thought as she frantically rushed to the exit.

-----

“How long do we have to stay here, Prue?” Piper whispered.

“I don’t know. At least until Grams comes home.”

When they got to Andy’s, Prue had led Piper to Andy’s treehouse. Andy and his parents weren’t home and Prue couldn’t think of anywhere else to go. At first, Piper had been afraid to climb the ladder, but once Prue mentioned that their mother would find them if they didn’t hide, she scrambled up and settled into the far corner of the treehouse. Prue had taken a seat by the window so she could watch for her grandmother’s car.

“She’s going to be so mad at us when we go home,” Piper said.

Prue looked away from the window and could tell at once that her sister was trying not to cry. She crawled across the treehouse and knelt in front of Piper, wrapping her in a tight hug. “That’s why we’re waiting for Grams. It’s going to be okay, I promise.”

Piper nodded as Prue let her go, her tears slipping down her cheeks despite her best efforts to hold them back. She had never been that scared in her whole life. Her mother had never been so mean to her and she didn’t even know how to feel about it. She wanted to be mad at her and hate her for it, but Patty was her mother and she knew that you weren’t supposed to hate your mother. You’re supposed to love her no matter what. Sighing, she looked up at her sister. Prue would have the answer; she always did. “Prue, do you hate Mama?”

“Why would I hate her?”

“Because she’s being so mean.”

Prue sat down next to Piper and put her arm around her, allowing Piper to rest her head on her shoulder. “Piper, that’s not Mommy in there.”

“But it is! She looks the same and everything.”

“No, it’s not. I don’t know who it is, but Mommy would never hurt us like that.” She squeezed Piper a little more tightly, trying to comfort her. “Don’t be mad at her. Grams’ll fix everything real soon.”

Piper nodded and snuggled next to Prue, staying very close to her sister. She closed her eyes, comforted by Prue’s strong embrace. Prue kissed the top of Piper’s head without letting her go. She allowed Piper to doze off on her shoulder while they waited for their grandmother to come home.

She had been thinking ever since they had climbed up in the treehouse. Her grandmother had told her once that their powers wouldn’t work on good witches. That was why Piper couldn’t freeze Prue when she got mad at her. Because her power had worked on her mother, she guessed that somehow her mom had been taken over by evil. She didn’t think that evil had taken her over all the way because it seemed to be only when they were alone that her mother got angry. Patty seemed to be trying to fight whatever was taking control of her. However, even though Prue knew all that, it didn’t stop her from being scared of her mother.

Andy slammed his car door closed and ran from the driveway into the backyard. “Andrew! Behave out there and be careful!”

“I will, Mommy!” Andy yelled, rolling his eyes. His mother was always telling him to behave and be careful. He always was, but she still said it to him all the time.

He ran to the treehouse and climbed the ladder, mumbling to himself about a cowboy game he was about to play. He liked to pretend that his treehouse was the second floor of a western saloon, right across from the bank, and that he would catch the robbers after seeing them from the high window. When he got inside, he looked around and gasped, completely surprised to see Prue and Piper sitting cuddled in the far corner. Both of them were sound asleep.

He edged closer to them, unsure if he should wake them or not. Reaching his hand out, he tapped Prue’s shoulder gently. She started and opened her eyes slowly. “Andy?” she whispered, a little disoriented. It was a moment before she remembered that she was in the treehouse in Andy’s yard.

“Hey. What are you doing up here?”

She rubbed her eyes and stretched, trying not to move too much. Piper was still fast asleep with her head on Prue’s shoulder and she didn’t want to wake her. She had no idea how to explain to Andy why she was there, so she decided to avoid the question. “Is my grandmother home yet?”

“I don’t think so,” Andy whispered. “I didn’t see the car in the driveway when I came home. Why are you guys up here? Are you and Piper all right?”

She hadn’t intended on telling Andy anything, but the weeks of keeping everything to herself and being strong for Piper had worn her down. She started crying as she blurted out what was going on, though she was still in control enough to keep the supernatural stuff out of it. “Mommy’s gone crazy! She started yelling at us, then she hit us, and just now, she sent Piper to her room for spilling a glass of milk when Mommy was the one who spilled it. But the thing is, she was so rough with her. She was squeezing her arms and twisting them backwards . . .” She trailed off as she glanced down at Piper. Dark bruises were starting to appear on her arms where her mother had been holding her. “I was so scared and I knew she’d find us if we stayed in the house, so I came over here with her, but you weren’t home. I didn’t know where else to go, so I came up here.”

Andy crawled next to Prue and sat down next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay, don’t cry. We’ll tell my mom. She’ll know what to do”

“No, don’t tell your mom,” Prue said, swallowing back some tears. She took a deep breath to calm herself down before continuing. “Grams knows what going on. All we have to do is wait for her to come home and everything will be fine again.”

Andy sighed. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to figure Prue out. She seemed truly scared of her mother and petrified to go back home without her grandmother, but she was refusing to let him help her. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Can you watch for Grams for me? I would, but I don’t want to wake Piper up.”

“Sure,” Andy smiled. He stood up, headed towards the small window, and peeked out at the Halliwells’ driveway. As

soon as he did, he saw their car pull in and their grandmother start to get out. “Prue, your grandmother’s home!”

Prue sighed with relief and shrugged her shoulder a little to rouse her sister. “Piper, wake up. Grams is home, so we can go back home now!”

Piper moaned, keeping her eyes closed. “I don’t want to go back home, Prue,” she mumbled.

“I know, honey, but Grams is home now. Remember I told you Grams’ll fix everything?”

“Oh yeah!” Piper exclaimed. She opened her eyes, crawled across the treehouse, and started down the ladder. “Come on, Prue!”

Prue giggled and started to follow her sister, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She whirled around and faced Andy. “What?”

“Are you sure you guys are going to be okay?” he asked, true concern in his voice.

She smiled. “We’ll be fine. Mommy’s fine when Grams is home. Don’t worry about us.”

Andy nodded and watched Prue and Piper run back to their house. He sighed heavily. There was something strange about those two, but rather than making him not like them, it endeared them to him. And because they meant so much to him, he couldn’t help but worry about them.

“Oh, girls, where have you been?” Patty asked frantically as the girls walked into the house with Penny. “I’ve been looking all over for you! I was worried sick.”

-----

Piper gripped Prue’s hand for reassurance as she answered. “We were in Andy’s--”

“--backyard,” Prue finished, elbowing Piper in the ribs to shut her up. Even though her mom seemed fine now, she wanted to keep the treehouse a secret. It was a perfect spot for her and Piper to hide if the need ever arose again. “We went to Andy’s yard to play.”

Penny watched her granddaughters talk to their mother. They hadn’t had time to tell her exactly what had happened while she was gone, but she could tell just by their actions that is had to have been pretty bad. “Patty, can I talk to you, please?”

Patty furrowed her brow, confused at the tone of her mother’s voice. “Sure,” she answered with a shrug.

“Girls, go on in the playroom. I just need to talk to your mom for a minute.” Prue nodded, took Piper’s hand, and led her to the playroom. Once the girls were out of earshot, Penny turned to her daughter. It seemed as though it was Patty and not whatever force was taking her over. The terrified look in her eyes pained Penny. “Something’s going on and I think I may have figured it out. I need you to come to the attic with me to check something in the Book of Shadows.”

“Why do you need me?” Patty asked snippily.

Penny looked into her daughter’s eyes once again. Instead of her brown eyes swimming with fear and pain, they were cold and calculating and there was a strange look on her face. She gripped Patty’s shoulders tightly. “Patty, I need you to fight this.”

Patty’s eyes immediately filled with tears and the cruel look on her face disappeared. “Oh, Mom, she’s getting so strong! It’s getting harder and harder to fight her.”

“It’s a her?” she asked. Patty nodded. “How can you be sure?”

“I just am,” Patty shrugged. “She wants to hurt the girls and she uses me to do it.”

“Why does she want to hurt the girls?”

Patty shrugged again, shaking her head. “Nothing makes sense, Mom, but her influence over me is getting stronger each day and when she takes over, she controls me longer and longer.”

Penny wrapped her arm around her daughter’s waist and started leading her upstairs. “What happened this afternoon? The girls are pretty scared.”

“I can’t remember much about it. I know I was really rough with Piper, shaking her and stuff like that, but I don’t remember much else. Oh, God, I bet they hate me!”

“They don’t hate you,” Penny assured her. “I think they know on some level that it’s not really you.”

Patty sighed. “I hope so. Anyway, you said you might have figured something out?”

“Yeah, I think I have,” she said. “And if it’s what I think it is, this is going to get worse before it gets better."

-----

“Laurel Clifton lived here before the earthquake of 1906,” Penny said as she flipped through the Book of Shadows. “Well, not here exactly, but on the property. She had a little girl named Samantha and I’ll bet you anything Laurel hit Samantha.”

Patty was trying to follow her mother’s train of thought, but she shook her head, giving up. “But why would Laurel hitting Samantha make me want to hurt Prue and Piper?”

Penny smiled triumphantly as she found the page she had been looking for. Pointing down at it, she looked up at her daughter. “Because Laurel was a witch. It says here that she was upset and angry all the time following the death of her husband. I imagine that caused her to dabble in the black arts. When the earthquake destroyed the house, she cursed the property, vowing that since she couldn’t be happy here, no one else could, either.”

“Okay, but why is the curse just manifesting itself now?” Patty asked. “I mean, I don’t remember you acting towards me the way I’m acting towards the girls.”

“I don’t think it is just manifesting itself now,” Penny replied after a moment of thought. “I think it’s manifested itself in different ways since our family has lived here, like through deaths and divorces and things like that. Your situation, though, is the closest to hers, so she probably feels more connected to you than to anyone else before.” Patty looked up at her, confused. “Think about it, dear. Brian died when Samantha was five. Victor left last year. You both have had to raise kids around the same age with no husband.”

Patty nodded thoughtfully. In a way, it made sense. They both had to deal with the anger of losing a husband and the fear of raising children without a father figure. However, she still didn’t understand why Laurel wanted to hurt the girls.

“But why hit the kids? It’s not their fault.”

“Laurel was angry, remember, and I bet she had no patience for a five-year- old. She hit Samantha because she didn’t know any other way to deal with her.” Penny paused a moment to make sure Patty was following. “When she takes you over, she hits the girls because she doesn’t know what to do with them and to make them mad at you. No one can be happy here, remember?”

Patty sighed. It sounded like her mother had it all figured out, but there was still something that was bothering her. “Why is she gunning for Piper? I mean, yeah, I’ve been horrible to both of them, but she’s so much worse to Piper.”

Penny sighed as well. “I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s because Prue’s stronger. She’d be more likely to fight you. Piper, on the other hand, is more easily upset and more submissive. Plus, Prue likes to protect Piper and if she feels she can’t--”

“--it’s like killing two birds with one stone,” Patty finished. Penny nodded solemnly. Patty shook her head. As much as she wanted to hate Laurel for what she did to her child and what she was doing to Patty’s own girls, she couldn’t bring herself to hate her. It wasn’t exactly her fault she became angry and cruel. If Patty didn’t have her mother helping her, she might have turned out the exact same way. There’s nothing like sympathizing with the devil, Patty thought bitterly.

“So what do we do now?”

“We keep you and the girls apart as much as we can until I can figure out how to break the curse,” she answered as she slammed the Book of Shadows closed.

-----

“Prue?” Piper whispered. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah,” Prue whispered back as she rolled over to face her sister. “What’s the matter?”

“I can’t sleep.” She got out of bed, crossed the room, and sat down on Prue’s bed, rubbing her eyes. “I haven’t gone to sleep all night. I’m scared.”

Prue sat up and pulled Piper into a hug. “What are you scared of?”

“What if Mama comes in while we’re asleep and hurts us?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“She won’t,” Prue said, a little more strongly than she felt. “Grams is in the next room, remember?”

Piper nodded, then pulled away from Prue and looked up at her with tears in her eyes. “But what if that doesn’t matter? What if she comes in anyway?”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Prue whispered comfortingly as she embraced Piper again. She didn’t know what to say to ease her sister’s mind because she had been up all night herself worrying about the exact same thing. She was exhausted, but she was afraid to let herself fall asleep. If Patty came in, she wanted to be ready to yell for her grandmother. Looking down at Piper, though, she knew that they both needed to sleep. She wasn’t sure how long ago they had been put to bed, but she knew that they should have been sound asleep for a while now. If only she had somewhere safe she could take Piper. . .

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. The treehouse! Andy and his parents had gone to his grandparents’ house for the night like they always did on Saturdays, but that didn’t mean the two of them couldn’t stay in the treehouse just until the morning. “Piper, come on! I have an idea.” She climbed out of bed and grabbed her pillow and blanket. “We’re going to camp out in the treehouse!”

“In the treehouse?” Piper asked as she got up and took her blanket and pillow as well.

“Mommy will never think to look for us there,” Prue assured her. She led Piper out of the room and down the hall. As they reached the stairs, she put her fingers to her lips, telling Piper to keep absolutely silent. Piper nodded and followed Prue down the stairs and out the back door.

They crossed their yard and ducked through the bushes into Andy’s. Once they got to the treehouse, Prue took Piper’s things and nudged her up the ladder. When Piper was all the way up, Prue threw the pillows and blankets up to her, then climbed up herself. After Prue had made it up, she placed Piper’s pillow in the corner, laid Piper down on it, and spread the blanket over her. “Now you can go to sleep and you don’t have to worry.”

Piper smiled and closed her eyes. “You’re so smart, Prue.”

“Shh,” Prue said with a smile. She set her stuff out right next to Piper, cuddling up to her sister. “Good night, Piper.”

“Night, Prue,” Piper yawned.

Prue grinned and settled down to sleep. Her sleep was completely uninterrupted until she felt a strong hand grab her arm. She opened her eyes and found herself staring into her mother’s angry, cold eyes. “Thought I wouldn’t find you, didn’t you?”

Piper jolted awake when she heard Prue scream her name. When she opened her eyes, she saw her mother standing in the corner, gripping Prue’s arms tightly. It was just what her mom had done to her earlier, squeezing her arms so strongly that it hurt. “Piper, get out of here!” Prue hollered frantically. “Go get Grams!”

Piper bolted for the ladder, but she stopped short when she felt someone grab onto the back of her pajama shirt. Shaking, she turned around and faced her mother. She had a hardened, cruel look in her eyes. “Not so fast, little girl.”

Patty had Piper’s shirt in one hand and both of Prue’s arms in the other. Piper looked over to Prue, who was struggling to get away. Her mother’s grip was too strong. She silently pleaded with Piper to find some way to escape. Though Piper was terrified, she grabbed her mother’s hand and pried the folds of her shirt out of her fingers. As soon as she was free, she ran down the ladder and back to the house.

“Go, Piper!” Prue yelled, tears of relief in her eyes. She was very proud of her little sister for standing up to Patty, or whoever was controlling Patty’s actions. Prue knew that her mother would never deliberately hurt her, but she was having a hard time believing that wholeheartedly. “She’s going to get Grams,” she said triumphantly.

“You won’t be so lucky,” Patty hissed as she yanked Prue’s arms. She brought her hand back, ready to smack Prue anywhere she could.

“No!” Prue exclaimed. She squinted her eyes and her mother stumbled backwards, releasing her grip on Prue’s arms. She ran for the ladder was well, but a split second later, she felt a hand wrap around her leg. She fell down hard on her knees and whirled around just in time to see her mother’s hand rise back up. “Mommy, please! Please don’t hurt me!”

“You should have thought about that before you took you sister and ran away.” She brought her hand down hard on Prue’s leg.

Prue started crying out of both pain and fear. “But we didn’t run away, Mommy! We didn’t. We were hiding--”

“Hiding from what?” Patty asked as she grabbed Prue by the shoulders and shook her violently.

“From you,” Prue said softly between sobs. “We were hiding from you. Piper was afraid to go to sleep because she thought you would come in in the middle of the night and hurt us.”

“Well, your sister has good instincts,” Patty whispered menacingly. She brought her hand back once again. Prue cringed and prepared herself for the worst.

“Patty, stop!”

Prue started when she heard her grandmother’s voice. Through her tears, she could see Penny enter the treehouse swiftly and grab Patty’s arm before she could bring it down again. “Piper did it,” Prue whispered with relief. Taking her chance, she ducked out of her mother’s reach and wrapped Piper in a hug as she was coming up the ladder.

Penny let Prue run behind her as she let Patty’s hand go. “Patty, I want you to listen to me. You can fight her. You can come back to us. The girls are fine”

“I don’t want them to be fine,” she sneered. “I want them to hate her.”

Prue glanced down at Piper, who was looked up at her. Piper looked just as terrified and confused as Prue felt. Why did their mother want them to hate her? “Mommy, we don’t hate you.”

“I can see I’ll have to try harder. You girls should hate her after all she’s done to you.” She stepped forward and snickered when Piper hid behind Prue.

“Patty, I know you’re in there and I know you can hear me,” Penny said, placing herself between Patty and the girls. “Fight her and come back to us.”

“Patty’s gone. I’m here now.”

“Mama, I love you,” Piper spoke up, peeking around Prue’s shoulder. “Please come back.”

Patty moaned and closed her eyes, sinking slowly to the floor. Penny ran to her side and put her arm around her shoulders. “Patty?”

“You have to break this curse, Mom,” Patty croaked. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep fighting her.”

Prue looked from her mother to her grandmother. “What’s going on?”

“Let’s go back home, girls,” Penny said as she helped Patty to her feet. “We have to have a little talk.”

-----

Penny settled the girls into her bed. It was still early, a little after four in the morning, and after she had her little chat with the girls, she wanted them to be able to go back to sleep without worrying. Plus, she wanted to keep a close eye on them and allowing them to sleep in her bed kept them close to her and away from Patty. “Okay, girls, I need to explain what’s going on.”

“Why’s Mama going crazy?” Piper asked softly. She was lying right next to Prue, keeping close to her. She had been clinging to Prue since they had gone back home.

“Piper, it’s not really your mom that’s hurting you,” Penny explained. “It’s someone who lived here a long time ago. She’s taking your mom over and making her hurt you.”

Piper furrowed her brow. “But she looks just the same as Mama.”

“That’s because we can’t see the person that’s controlling her, right?” Prue asked.

“That’s exactly right, darling,” Penny said with a smile. “I can make the evil person go away, but I need a little more time to work on my plan. Until then, I don’t want you two to be alone with your mother, okay?”

Both girls nodded wordlessly. “Does Mama still love us?” Piper asked after a moment of silence.

“Your mother loves you very much,” Penny assured her. “I want you to always remember that. Your mother loves you both and would never do anything to hurt you.” She smiled and brushed Piper’s hair out of her face. “Now, I want you two to go back to sleep. I’ll be in here all the time, so you don’t have to worry about getting hurt.”

“Okay, Grams,” Prue said as her eyes fell closed. She wrapped her arm around Piper, holding her protectively. “Night.”

“Good night, girls. I love you.” Penny waited until both of them were asleep, then stood and crossed the room, snatching her notepad off the dresser. The spell to break the curse was almost there, and she vowed not to let the girls out of her sight until she had perfected it.

Prue had been lying awake for a little over an hour. Piper was still asleep and her grandmother was writing furiously on her notepad. As much as Prue wanted to crawl into her grandmother’s lap and ask for the longest, most comforting hug she’d had in a while, she knew she should stay put and let her grandmother work on her plan. Getting her mother back to normal was the most important thing at the moment. Prue’s hug could wait.

Piper turned over with a whimper. She had been sleeping rather restlessly for the past half hour or so. Prue ran her hand over her arm, trying to gently calm her down before she interrupted Grams from her spellwriting. “It’s okay, Piper,” she whispered softly into her ear. “It’s okay.”

Piper settled down with a sigh. Prue smiled slightly and turned onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. So much had happened in the past few weeks and it was staggering to think about what she and Piper had endured. They had been terrorized and manipulated by pure evil and somehow they had made it through without much harm. A few bruises here or there, but for the most part, they were fine. She couldn’t wait for her grandmother to finish her spell. She didn’t understand everything, but she knew that once the plan was finished, her mom would be fine and everything would go back to normal. And she desperately wanted everything to return to normal. As normal as things could be around her house, at any rate.

The door creaked open slowly, startling Prue from her reverie. Prue sat up slightly, propping herself up on her elbows, and involuntarily drew in her breath when she saw her mother walk in. “Morning, baby,” Patty whispered.

“Morning, Mommy,” Prue answered hesitantly. She edged closer to Piper as Patty crossed the room.

Patty’s heart dropped when she saw Prue so frightened. She longed to run over to her, hug her tightly, and tell her she loved her like crazy, but she didn’t dare get too close to either of her daughters. She couldn’t be sure when Laurel was going to come through again and she didn’t want to be near the girls when she did. “It’s okay, sweetie,” she said with a smile. “It’s me.”

Prue nodded, then glanced down to make sure Piper was still asleep. She sighed with relief when she saw that she was.

The last thing Prue wanted to deal with was Piper panicking about seeing their mom.

Patty smiled and knelt down next to her mother’s chair. “How’s it coming?”

“It’s almost there,” Penny answered without taking her eyes off the paper. “Just give me like, another half an hour.”

“Okay.” Patty stood up and headed for the door. She knew that her presence was making Prue uneasy and that was something Laurel thrived on. She didn’t want to give her any openings to come through while she was in the room.

“Patty,” Penny called quietly.

She turned around expectantly. “Hmm?”

“I promise you, I’ll fix this today.”

Patty smiled, nodded, and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

-----

“Aha!” Penny exclaimed. “Perfect!”

Prue sat up, her eyes brightening when she saw the triumphant look on her grandmother’s face. “You got it?”

“Yes, I did,” she grinned. She stood, crossed the room, and sat down on the bed to wake Piper. There was something about her plan she had to explain to the girls, and she knew it was something Piper wouldn’t like. “Piper, sweetie, open your eyes.”

Piper groaned reluctantly, but she did as she was told. She sat up, rubbing her eyes. “Morning, Grams.”

“Morning, darling,” she said with a smile. “Guess what. I finished the spell to make the evil person go away”

“You did?” Piper asked excitedly. “Yay!”

“Yeah, I did,” she answered cautiously, “but in order for my plan to work, I need you girls to help me. It’s not going to be easy, though.”

The excited expression on Prue’s face dropped slightly. Piper’s hand found hers under the covers. She squeezed back comfortingly. “What do we have to do?”

“Laurel’s hold on your mother is very strong,” Penny explained. “The more Laurel hurts you and the more scared of her you become, the stronger her hold gets. She’s not going to go easily. I need you girls to keep calling to your mom and telling her that you love her. If I’m right, that should weaken Laurel’s hold on your mom.”

“That sounds easy enough,” Piper said with a small sigh of relief.

“Remember, though, it’s not going to be your mom when we go down there. It’s going to be Laurel and she’s going to be very, very mad.” Penny reached over and pulled Piper onto her lap. “You girls have to be very strong and very brave for me. Do you think you can do that?”

Piper glanced at Prue, apprehension in her eyes. Prue smiled, letting Piper know that everything would be okay, then looked her grandmother directly in the eye. “We can do it. You can count on us.”

“Okay, girls, stay behind me,” Penny said as she led the girls downstairs.

“No problem,” Prue answered, her voice quavering slightly. Truth be told, she was most afraid than she thought she was going to be. Her heart was pounding and all she wanted to do was run back up the stairs and hide under her blankets until everything was over. She knew, though, that she had to at least appear to be unafraid for Piper’s sake. When they were almost at the bottom of the stairs, Piper all of a sudden gripped Prue’s hand tightly, looking for a little reassurance. Prue caught her eye and smiled. After a moment, Piper smiled back.

Once they were downstairs, Penny put her finger to her lips and motioned for the girls to follow closely behind her. They obeyed, huddling together as their grandmother called for Patty. She received no answer, so she tried again more loudly. After a moment, Patty stalked out of the kitchen. Piper gasped when she saw her. Her face was twisted in a cruel sneer and her eyes were glittering with anger and rage. “You think you can get rid of me with a piece of paper?” she laughed when she saw the spell folded in Penny’s hand.

“No. We know we can get rid of you with the one thing you hate most,” Penny answered. “Go on, girls.”

They both hesitated, but Prue spoke up first. “Mommy, we love you. Fight her and come back to us. We miss you.”

“It’s not going to work,” Patty said. “My hold on her is too strong. Your mom’s gone, girls, and I’m taking her place.”

“Ignore her,” Penny answered calmly. “You can get your mom back. Keep trying.”

“Mama, I know you can hear me,” Piper said softly. “Please come back and give me a hug. I love you.”

“I want a hug, too,” Prue said with a grin. Piper’s idea was very smart. The one thing her mother loved more than anything was giving her girls hugs and holding them. “Please, Mommy, I miss getting hugs from you.”

Patty groaned a little bit, Laurel’s hold on her weakening slightly. “Keep it up!” Penny exclaimed excitedly. “You’re doing great! Just a little bit more.”

“Mama, I love you more than anything,” Piper said, her voice getting stronger. “You have to come back because if you don’t, I’ll be very, very sad.”

Prue grinned, proud of Piper’s resolve. Even though she was young, she knew exactly what to say. Patty groaned again and stumbled backwards, but she quickly regained her composure. “Let’s see if you still love her after this,” she hissed.

She rushed forward towards Piper. Piper, frightened, threw her hands up to protect herself and her mother froze in place. Panting, she lowered her arms and looked up at her grandmother, completely confused. “Girls, go in the playroom, now,” Penny said, seeing her chance.

Prue grabbed Piper’s hand and dragged to the playroom. She knew that her grandmother wanted them out of there so that they wouldn’t see what she was about to do, but she had to watch. She wanted to see her mom come back. Standing by the doorjamb, she peeked around the corner. “Stay there,” she whispered to Piper.

“No!” Piper yelled with a small whine. She huddled up behind Prue and peeked around Prue’s shoulder. “How come I could freeze her?”

“’Cause it’s not Mommy, it’s Laurel,” Prue whispered quickly. “Now, shush.”

Just as Patty unfroze, Penny began reciting the spell. “Evil woman from the past, we have found you out at last--”

“No!” Patty screamed, lunging at Penny.

Penny sidestepped her and finished her chant. “This curse you made I now will break, never again a soul to take.”

Patty sank to the ground, but a white mist stayed. After a moment, the mist formed the spirit of a woman dressed in a long, royal purple velvet dress. Prue gasped and Piper hid her eyes in the folds of Prue’s shirt. After a quick moment, Patty sat up. “You’re free now, Laurel,” she said weakly. “Go to Brian.”

The woman looked around the room angrily for a moment, then gave Patty a knowing, grateful smile. She once again turned into a mist which swirled its way through the ceiling and disappeared. Patty sighed heavily as she tried to stand.

Prue and Piper ran from the playroom and tackled their mother, both of them giving her the biggest hug they could. “Whoa, girls!” she said, laughing. “Hold on a sec. Let me at least stand up.”

Penny helped her daughter stand, then scooped up Piper as Patty picked up Prue. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to make a picnic lunch and take it to the park,” Patty said. “I want to spend some time with my girls. We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”

Prue nodded, wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck, and nestled her head on her shoulder. It was so good to have her mother back.

-----

Prue and Piper were busy throwing pebbles into the pond as Penny and Patty cleaned up the paper plates and cutlery. After everything was thrown away and the uneaten food put back into the cooler, Patty sat back down cross- legged on the blanket and leaned back on her hands, letting the wind blow through her hair. She felt a little strange, like she had been drugged for a few days.

“How’re you feeling?” Penny asked as she sat down next to her.

“A little weird,” she answered slowly. “Like, you know how when you’re really sick and then you get better, sometimes you don’t know what day it is and stuff like that?” Penny nodded. “It’s like that, but more intense. It’s also kind of . . . empty, I guess is the word.”

“You identified with her, didn’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question.

Patty looked at her mother, then back down at the blanket. “Yeah, I did. I mean, she missed her husband so much. And then when she lost her house, too, it was like her entire life was falling apart. I know it doesn’t excuse what she did to Samantha or what she did to Prue and Piper, but I understand why she did it.” She sighed and watched the girls giggle by the water’s edge. “Does that make me evil?”

“No, darling, it doesn’t,” Penny said, resting her hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “It makes you compassionate. You were able to see past all the anger and rage through to the human being Laurel was, all while she was hurting your children. It takes a strong woman to do that.”

Patty nodded sadly, then grinned when she saw the girls running back to them. She opened her arms and both of her daughters ran into them, squeezing back. When they let go, she sat Prue on one of her legs and Piper on the other. “I missed you girls.”

“I missed you, too, Mommy,” Prue said with a smile. “I’m so happy you’re back.”

“And Laurel can never, ever come back?” Piper asked softly.

“She can never come back, ever,” Penny said, grinning.

“Good, because I hated her,” Piper said, a hint of anger in her voice.

“Don’t hate her,” Patty said, looking down at Piper.

“But she was evil!” Prue exclaimed. “She almost took you away from us and she hurt us. Why shouldn’t we hate her?”

“Because hatred is what made Laurel evil in the first place,” Patty explained. “Laurel was a good mother at one point, but then she lost someone very dear to her and she started hating everything. She became so angry and blinded by her hate that she lost sight of what was good in the world. I don’t want that to happen to you, either of you.”

The girls were silent for a moment. “Do I have to like her?” Piper asked.

“No, you don’t have to like her,” Patty said, smiling gently. “But don’t hate her.” She kissed the top of Piper’s head as Piper leaned back against her.

Prue leaned back against her mother as well, grinning when her mom kissed her, too. It was so good to have her mother back that she almost didn’t care what had happened to her during the past few weeks. It was like a black cloud had been lifted. There was a light, airy feeling around her mother now and there was no longer anger hovering over the four of them. The girls could go back to their carefree playing and bickering without fear of consequences. As a matter of fact

. . . “Tag, you’re It!” Prue exclaimed as she poked Piper’s arm and scrambled off her mother’s lap.

“I’ll get you good!” Piper yelled, taking off after her.

Penny and Patty giggled. “Things are already back to normal, huh?” Penny said, grinning.

Patty nodded. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”