Who: Prue Halliwell Where: Prison When: Last night What: Pondering her death and new life Warnings: Character death Status: Completed narrative
Dr. Griffiths wasn't the first difficult innocent Prue had encountered. She and her sisters saved people on a weekly basis who had never believed in magic, couldn't understand why something they never even thought was real could possibly be coming after them. There was no easy way to explain it, and there was no sense in tiptoeing around the subject, especially not now. So, she was blunt. She explained it as quickly and easily as she could, and still, he refused to believe her. She was starting to feel exasperated.
She was mid-sentence when she felt it. Something felt off. Wrong. Like something was missing from this picture. A chill slid down her spine.
Piper questioned her, looking just as puzzled as she felt, but still she found herself calling Phoebe's name. She had just gone upstairs to find the Book, why wasn't she answering? What was taking her so long?
The doors blew open, and they all turned to see the cyclone barreling toward them. It was him. Shax. The demon Phoebe had seen in her vision, the Source's assassin, and he was going to kill this ignorant man if Phoebe didn't get down here now.
The force of the cyclone knocked them over before he appeared in his solid form, a tall man with long gray hair and a sickly gray skin tone to match. Prue had been up against more demons than she could count in the past three years, but she had never encountered one like this. He made her feel sick, like her stomach was in knots.
He had zeroed in on his target, and Prue's eyes widened. "No!" she yelled, and in that moment, she knew she had no other choice. Only the Power of Three could vanquish him forever. So, she launched herself at him as fast as she could, with all the strength left inside her, taking the blow herself. She'd gone through the well of the conservatory, the impact knocking her unconscious. It hadn't taken long for her to bleed out, and then she was gone. Just a spirit, watching everything happen from the outside.
For a while, she'd gone to the other side. She'd seen Grams and Mom and Andy again, and she'd felt at peace. But Piper's summons, her desperate pleas, they'd brought her back. She couldn't let her sisters go, so she'd watched. She'd watched as the Power of There became whole again. She watched as Piper became the older sister, the wise one, doing everything she could to step into Prue's footsteps. Their pain was her pain, and she hated that she couldn't go to them. That the Elders had forbidden her from revealing herself to them. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right. But she could watch. For twelve years, she'd watched.
It had been thirty days. Prue had been reliving her death for thirty days. She'd determined it was the price she had to pay for coming back again. The price she and all the others paid for what Bonnie had done, for using dark magic to bend the universe to her will.
It wasn't so bad for her. Her death had been mostly painless. She woke up every afternoon with her head and back aching and an overwhelming feeling of sadness. But it was worth it. Every day she relived her death, it was worth it. She was back where she belonged, where she could do some good in a world that had so little remaining.