[A click is heard as a key turns in the lock of Lirie's new penthouse. The sizable place is tidy, material things in order, but a thick layer of dust covers most of the surfaces.]

::The Landlord enters and waits for Lirie to come in behind him.::

"This is the best one I've got, ya see? I've done you a big favor..."

(How will she ever repay me?)

::Lirie walks in and scans her surrounding::

(Oh shit... I'll have to do a lot of cleaning. Oh well... it can be worse)

::She glances down at the landlord, smirking. Her slender finger brushes her lips as she retrieves an acid green gum she's been shewing. She grabs the landlord's hand, places the gum inside his greasy palm and closes it. Then quickly shoots a bright smile at the landlord and shoves him out of her apartment::

"Thanks!"

::She shouts through the door, unwilling to see that disgusting face ever again. She shrugs, walking into the living room, then into the kitchen, up the spyral steps into the bedroom and finishes her tour with a quick cold shower. After the shower, she walks out onto the porch admiring the view::

"Well pull my leg and call me Betty... this is amazing..."

::She inhales deeply, deciding to stay there for a while::

(This is going to be... fun)

::The landlord is shoved into the hallway, warm and pre-chewed gum in his hand...::

::Lirie moves slightly, feeling her raven-black hair coiling down her figure and around her ankles, once again pondering on the thought of cutting it all off. Deciding against it, she cast another look at the city at her feet and steps into the living room. She heads up into the bedroom, grabbing a pair of sweat pants and pulling them on. Despite the fact she liked walking around her flat in the large Yankees t-shirt, she had a nauseating feeling that the creepy old landlord was somewhere near her. She grabs the tenants list and the bell and heads down the stair. She places the bell on the counter in the kitchen, then head over to the living room, collapsing on the green puffy armchair,scanning the list, memorizing the tenants' names and apartments::

(Petunius? God bless that man for his bravery... Okay, got it, got it, got it... and... got it...)

::She finishes with the list, leaving it on the coffee table and heads back up into her bedroom. She quickly changes into a pair of jeans and a black sweater, grabs her suede jacket and heads down. She spots a black scrunchy and quickly rolls her long hair into a tight bun on the back of her head. She snakes herself into the jacket, grabs the keys and heads out of the apartment::

::Lirie slides in and quickly transforms back into herself. She shruggs out of her jacket and throws it onto the couch. Grabbing the overloaded basket she heads over to the large mahogany cabinet. She then places all the books, candles and crystals she intented to buy inside of it, treating it as carefully as she could. The potion ingrediens and the vials she leaves in the kitchen. One of the athames she owns now she places inside of the cabinet as well, and the other one she takes with her back to the couch::

(Na na na... what are you thinking about? Deck the halls with blah blah blah, I don't know the words fa la la la! What are going to do with the athame, you idiot? Be mean, be mean... that's the right way to stop me from taking prozac again, you evil split personality...)

::She grabs her jacket and inspect its inside layer. It's crooked and weakly sewed. Swiftly with her fingers she rips off few stiches and tucks the sheath and the athame inside of it. Then she brings some twine from the kitchen and sews it back, leaving enough space that with a flicker of her hand it would be possible to grasp the hilt and draw it out of its sheath. She tries the jacket on, shrugging a little and flexing her elbows. The athame is slightly shorter then her forearms, so it fits almost perfectly. Dropping the jacket back onto the couch, she walks to the cabinet and reaches in for a few books. Walking into the kitchen, she flops some of the books on the counter, leaving "The World Of Castration Potions" to look through::

(Oh my god... can you do that???)

::Fliping through the pages, Lirie finds an enormous amount of various castration potions, some more grotesque than the others. Picking the more mild mixes, she starts working on them and on blinding potions as well. She finishes with the potions, pouring all into small vials and placing them on the counter::

(Okay... so the white ones are the blinding and the green once are the castration...)

::She cleans up after herself and grabs the book on spells::

"Lets see... this one looks handy... to cleanse ones' house

Waste that settled in my dwelling
Thou shall vanish with this spelling"

::Lirie looks around, waiting for something to happen::

::After what seemed to be too long of a wait, she finally gives up, feeling her ego crash way bellow zero::

(Some witch... can't even dust the freakin' place. What will happen when demons attack?)

::Scringing at the thought of possible physical pain, Lirie shots the book close with a loud sound and grabs her jacket::

(You're going to ask refund for a book you didn't bought? Brilliant! No, I'm going to pay back the money for my stuff and bring back the basket... and the book. Watch out! It's Lirie - the infamous bastek thief... if I could I would laugh I your face. If I could I would kick your ass, but since doing that means causing physical pain to myself, I'll postpone it...)

::She leaves her penthouse, locking the door and heading to the Magic Shop::

::Lirie leaks into her own tub nd turns into herself again::

(Oh, that poor poor person! Probably had a heart attack from the... ahem. Well at least I can always hope he had a nervous break-down and decided that could never cope with the big city. A little luck and he will leave to a forgotten little village in south Africa and I won't have to look him in he eyes...)

::She walks into the bedroom, heads to the closet and is glad to see her own clothes in it. She throws all the other clothes into the dirty laundry, right after fishing out the two spare keys to the penthouses. She shakes her face, feeling a deep crimson shade creeping onto her cheeks::

(I won't ask you how you could mistake between the two flats. Hryak, he was in his boxers!!! You should thank whatever is Up There for leaking into an apartment of a she-male. I don't want to think what could've happen if it was an apartment of some sicko. Did you saw the facial cream? It was an apartment of some sicko...)

::She grabs a black bag and skips downstairs, heading to the kitchen. She snags the potions from the counter and the black bladed athame and slings it into the bag, then grabs a black duster. She looks through the peephole to see if Vince was still there, and afer making sure the coast was clear, she pulls on the duster, grabbing the bag and walks out. She is heading to the Magic Shop, reminding herself to buy flowers on her way there::

::Lirie slids in, de-liquidizing herself and sighs heavily::

(I'm never facing real people and real life again! Ever! What a hostile world we're living in... it wasn't as bad when I was caught in a bus with that freakin' shahid! Boo hoo me... BATH!!!)

::She throws the bag and strides into the bathroom, ripping clothes off of her on her way in. *Magically*, she discovers that the bath was filled with bubbles, scents, salts adn all other shizney that makes long baths so delightful. She climbs in, after making sure there were clean and fresh clothes in a reach of a hand, and expectedly dozzes away. Loud snoring sounds carrying down the hallways and trenbling the windows. Somewhere in the forest all the birds flies away and the animals howls::

::Lirie stirrs up, gradually realizing that the wet feeling she felt was the bath. She climbs out, puts on some clothes and drains the bath::

(Okay... as much as I hate to admitt... Ice Cube was right... the castration potion cannot do much damage. Back to brewing...)

::She quickly gathers all she needs and begins potion making marathon::

[An hour later]

::Stacked with enough of various potions to bring down the entire Corleone family, Lirie scans the flat for various crap that could be useful. Throwing everything she needed into the bag, she picks it up, weighting it... not as heavy as you may think::

"I present you... the Super-Mom Bag! Available in your local Super-Mom stores only 19.95..."

::She marches up stairs into her bedroom, dresses quickly, grabbing her super-bag and without slowing down strides onto the balcony, heading forward. Soon she slides down the walls on the appartment complex as her liquid self::

(Look Mom! No hands...)

::As soon as she reaches the street, she hurries into the alleyway and transforms back. Brushing off of her shoulder some dust, she walks into the street, heading back to P3::

::Sliding into the flat, Lirie hurries up the spyral stairs into the bedroom. She returns to her usual un-watery self and gets out of her clothes. Finding something more comfortable, Lirie grabs a pen and her black notebook and heads out onto the porch. She switches on the lights of the porch and falls into a big, puffy armchair, her mind drifts away as she begins to write::

[Patience is dropped heavily at Lirie's feet.]

::Patience looks around and notices that the place she is now in contains walls, lamps, tables...not exactly a beast's den...unless they were fighting Martha Stewart. She looks around and meets Lirie's questioning gaze.


("My friend is in danger"...Lirie is a friend...very funny. Ok...so my spell wording needs a little work...)

"Um...hey Lirie."

::Patience flashes a "aren't I cute" smile::

"I guess your wondering what I'm doing here huh?"

::Lirie is starled at the muffled thud she hears from the inside of her flat. She jumps to her feet, placing carefully the notebook onto the armchair and walks in. Seeing Patience, she raises an eyebrow and throw a questioning look. She recognizes her and smiles::

"I'll take a wild guess saying your spell got mixed up... or you missed me so very much, you decided to cast a spell to find me. I prefer to think the former, cause the latter freaks me out..."

(If anyone tries to find me, they are crazier than I am...)

"Drink? I know I need one..."

::She strolls into the kitchen, feeling utter exhaustion as always she does after writing about Him::

"Who did you tried to find anyway?"

"A drink would be...uh...bad...but I'll take one anyway."

::Patience follows Lirie into the kitchen.::

"I was trying to find a guy named Justin...his friend...or boyfirend...I dont know...was taken by some monster demon thing. He tried to scry but it didn't work...so then he cast a spell..and that worked but it didn't take me with him...I'm really worried about him."

(...and I really don't know why.)

"Can you help me find him? His friend (I hope friend) was unconscience...so he's fighting that thing all alone."

(I will not cry...I will not cry...I will not cry.)

::Lirie was in a middle of drink giving when the words 'guy, boyfriend, taken, demon' reached her ears. She froze in mid air, her thought rambling in her mind. She hands Patience her drink and marches into the living room::

"Monster demon, say you? Can you describe it...?"

::She walks to the cabinet she have all her wicca stuff and swings the doors open. Diving in, she searches for the book she needs. Finally finding it, she climbs out and walks over to Patience::

"Here it is... "Bay Area Demons"! So... did you caught something distinguish in this creature or are we asking The Powers for guidance? Though I have a feeling they're cranky today... my spell got messed up too..."

"Well the only thing I remember was its eyes...they were really bright...they glowed. Oh...it walked on all fours...and had really sharp teeth.

(That I hope didn't rip Paz to shreds.)

"Your spell got messed up too? What did you try to do?"

(Cranky powers? Ok...I know I should trust them, but I really don't want Justin or Paz to die because the powers are supernaturaly PMSing.)

"So should we even bother asking the powers for help...or should we trust them?"

::Lirie flips through the book, searching for demons with glowing eyes who walk on four::

"I was bored, so I tried to find someone I could help. The Powers gave me a mirror... funny b... nevermind"

::She pauses at a page speaking of some sort water demon::

(Nope... cannot leave his underwater dwelling...)

"No... I didn't said that. You should trust The Powers, if only because they're theones that guide you and generally are the 'Good Guys'... whatever that means. But sometimes they just get cranky and stubborn... or something. Does this one look familiar?"

::Lirie points to the picture of a crocodile-like creature with huge glowing eyes::

::Patience sees the picture and ghasps.::

" Yep thats it. I only saw it in low light...but there is no mistaking those eyes...how do we kill it?"

::Patience shudders as she looks over Lirie's shoulder and reads "It uses it's front fangs to poison it's prey and then rips its prey apart with its two layers of razor sharp teeth.::

"Hey poison...that must of been why Paz passed out so fast"

[Oh you two. Can't go around making false claims now, can you? Here. Let us help. The pages in the book turn swiftly, resting on a completely different page. As always, to see the pic, click on the link!]

::Lirie gasps as the pages flip::

"Okay... you were wrong, but the good news are that The Powers are shining upon us..."

::She turn her eyes back to the pages and reads out loud::

"... glowing red eyes... hypnotism device... stun it's prey... slash... claws... bite... spade-like teeth. Huh! Kinda like you... show your teeth. No? Okay then..."

(Weak spots...)

"Okay then... we gotta get going. I don't think your friend have much time. The book is suggestive so I'm taking a wild guess saying that the weak spot is it's eyes..."

::Putting the book down and picking up her super-bag, she turns to Patience::

"I babble when I'm exsited... how are you at rhyming?"

::Patience mumbles something to herslef about "they all look the same." and then shifts toward Lirie.::

"Well...I can do it...but you better come up with the spell."

( I don't want to mess up and send us to hell...or worse...my parents house.)

"Hey before we go...lemmie check your bag of tricks. I don't want to go in unarmed"

::Lirie hand Patience the bag::

"Dig in! But be careful, I might have some sharp objects in there..."

::She holds her hand and starts thinking of a rhyme, then pauses::

"What are your friends' names? 'The Beast' isn't really precise and I don't want to push our luck with The Powers' hospitality..."

::Patience reaches into the bag and see's lots of goodies...however a small dagger with a full and two cresent moons grabs her atttention. She tests the blade's sharpness by running her finger slowly across it. It draws blood and she is satisfied with it so she places it on her hip through her belt. She, hearing Lirie's question, turns to answer her.::

"The guy who cast the spell is Justin, and the guy who was taken by the beast is Paz."

(I hope the use of the present tense is not presumptious.)

"And oh yeah...I found my weapon...you ready?"

::Scanning the blade, Lirie smiles::

"Noce choice... okay, it's rhyming time!"

::She tightens the bag around herself, with the other hand holding Patience's and strarts chanting::

"Spirits of air, forces so free
As we desire so shall it be
Loss of friends we cannot abide
Deliver us to Paz's and Justin's side"

(Please make it work...)

::Patience squezes Lirie's hand in hope and anticipation then joins her in the chant.::

"Spirits of air, forces so free
As we desire so shall it be
Loss of friends we cannot abide
Deliver us to Paz's and Justin's side"

::Lirie stops after the third chant, realizing the spell won't work::

"So much for the 'shining upon us' part..."

::She turns around, trying to come up with another way::

(No use scrying, I guess...)

"I would've accepted the fact we're not suppose to help your friends if there wouldn't have been a beast in all this shizney..."

(Maybe it's not our destiny to fight the beast?)

"Screw destiny! I wan't a near-death experience!"

::Scanning the book again for a possible location, she turns to Patience with almost all hope gone::

"Do you feel lucky? How about to ask the powers to bring us to the beast instead of your friends?"

(And what if it would be some other beast? Do you want to be in unnecessary danger? That's the whole thing with the near-death experience, duh! Do you want to put her in danger? Crap... damn me and my high sense of moral!)

::Patience gets lost in the dissappointment for a second when Lirie's voice and a sudden urge snap her out of it.

(Well I know it didn't work for finding Paz...but maybe it will work for finding Justin.)

"Well...I know you said not to...but I want to scry for Justin. Maybe we'll get lucky. I want to find them I do...but I don't want to put oursleves in more danger than nessicary...if this does not work then we will definatly use your spell."

::Not wanting to give Lirie time to dissagree with her, Patience heads for the door and goes out into the hallway.::

::Watching Patience disappear through the door, Lirie arhces an eyebrow and follows her::

::Lirie enters the flat, leaving the bag at the door and walks into the shower::

(Must... rinse... vampire pieces... out of the hair...)

::Lirie walks out of the shower, tangled up in her own washed hair::

(This is not even funny...)

::She pulls on a pair of sweat pants and a hokey t-shirt, grabbing the scissors and walking out of her flat, heading to Paz's Penthouse::

::Lirie enters the flat, placing the scissors on a commode. She walks into her bedroom, changing her clothes, grabbing her super-bag and heads back out into the hallway::

::Entering the flat, Lirie holds the dopr for Patience and Piper::

"If her parents will get this, they will press charges..."

::Patience shuts the door behind her and locks it before releasing Piper.::

"Don't want you running off now do we."

::Patience said...smiling a "hahaha" smile at the girl.::

"I doubt they will press charges...like I said...we were not the ones who tied her up with s&m paraphenila. Also like I said...we are returning her asap...she said something earlier about a Prue...and a headstone I read in the grave yard said "Pruedence Halliwell"...I figure its worth a shot to check it out."

::Patience rushes to the nearest telephone and picks up a Phonebook. She quickly filpps to the H's::

"I don't see Pruedence Halliwell...but I do see a Piper & Leo Halliwell."

::Patience turns to little Piper.::

"Are those your Parents? Piper and Leo?"

::Patience watches horrified as Piper dissappears.::

"What the Hell is going on!? Where did she go!?

::Seeing Piper disappearing in a swirl of pinkish orbs after reciting what deems to be a spell, Lirie stares buffled at Patience and then sighs heavily::

"Damn! What? They manufactor magical kids now, too? Okay, that kid doesn't want or need our help. I'll take a wild guess, saying she's a witch herself and not a newbie..."

(She managed a transportation spell, nothing less...)

::Patience starts to consider Lirie's words as she comes out of her shock.::

"But she is still a kid...magical or not she can't hold her own against some demons...or a beast...or a vampire."

::Patience chockes back tears as she starts to really fear for the childs safety.::

"but we do keep loosing her...maybe we aren't meant to help."

(I'm so confused.)

"I'm so confused"

::Lirie wraps her arms around Patience for comfort::

"Oh Honey... don't cery, you know I freak out. Look... we're probably not suppose to help that... girl. But I can assure you that Powers are not that sadistic to let a child be harmed... they will send someone else to help her."

::She grabs a box of tissues from her bag and offers Patience::

"If you're still scared for her, perhaps you can cast a spell, huh?"

::She leaves Patience grabbing a notepad and a pen and scribbling on the paper: "Child lost, she's all alone; return her now to loving home"::

"Here... this will take her home without endangering you in any more... scratches, bites etc, etc..."

::Patience looks at Lirie with grateful eyes and smiles.::

"Thanks hon...that makes me feel alot better."

(If it works)

"To Return A Lost Child.

Child lost,
she's all alone;
return her now
to her loving home."

::Patience repeats this three times back to back and waits to see if it worked.::

"Okay, now... the spell is recited, hopefully The Powers heard you and now you can try to relax, huh?"

::Lirie drops the bag onto the floor and leads Patience into the kitchen::

"As we didn't got to eat in Paz's place, I will take the honor of offering you my fridge... everything you may like is in there. After that you may take the bed up stairs, you look beat. So... how good are your cooking?"

[The spell, as usual, backfires. There's a locking sound accompanied by a flash of orange light on all of the doors and windows, as well as a loud gurgling from all of the sinks and plug holes. Lirie and Patience are now locked inside Lirie's loving home until further notice]

"What tha...?"

::Lirie glances at the windows, then check the door, dreadfully realizing the place was locked from top to bottom::

(No, no, no, no, no, no... this is not happening!)

::She quickly liquidifies, slithering into the sink hole, but realizes she's unable to go further. Climbing out of it, she return to her self, running to the balcony doors. She jerks them violently, but the are shot. She grabs the nearest chair and smash it upon the glass, but it shadders and the balcony doors remain spotless. She walks to her front door starting kicking it, but ot doesn't budge. She tries to slide underneath it, but it fails too::

"WHAT THE FUCK??? I don't believe this!!! How could that fucking spell backfire??? We're not children, not lost and we needed no returning!!! Damn it!!!"