by Paul Ruditis
“A website called the Gorgon Gaze,” Stheno explained. “It’s a revenge site dedicated to shaming women who fall in love with married men. The owner has built a small empire out of the idea that women are completely to blame for the wandering eyes of men. She’s written books and hosted seminars. She even sells T-shirts with that logo emblazoned across the chest.”
“She?” Medusa asked. “Our next victim is a woman? We’re attacking women?”
Stheno shook her head in disbelief. “Athena was a woman. Gender shouldn’t be a default protection when you are betraying your own. That makes it even worse as far as I’m concerned.”
There was something about what Stheno was saying that didn’t sit right with Medusa. To see a woman owning a business and leading enough of a staff to fill this building was something that Medusa couldn’t help but feel a small measure of respect for, even if the goal of the operation was detrimental. She chalked this one up to the time she had been away. Certainly female business owners were more commonplace today than they had been in her time. There was no question this particular woman was doing others harm, though Medusa wasn’t entirely sure what websites were and how they impacted the world at large.
“She’s about to launch a new site,” Euryale added. “Aimed at exposing women in the business world for behaving like men. She has no shame, really. Her own company is ninety percent men. The women she hires are all in low level roles.”
“That is why I chose her to be next,” Stheno said. “Truthfully, she is further down my list, but the media will be gathering today for her announcement. If she suddenly turns to stone with reporters in the lobby it will be hard for anyone to cover this up.”
“They’ll notice us as well,” Medusa said with concern. She was already wary of her sisters’ plan. She was not prepared to have to defend herself again so soon after returning.
Stheno opened the glass door beside the stone sign. “We’ll be fine. I’ve got it all worked out.”
Medusa felt a chill as she passed over the threshold. It wasn’t the building’s cool air system, though that was a fascinating use of technology, she had to admit. No. It was Stheno. There was something almost maniacal in her tone. It worried Medusa, even though she couldn’t bring herself to say anything as they passed through the lobby where reporters were setting up their equipment.
The trio stepped into a rectangular box that Medusa now knew to be an elevator. It was the oddest sensation once the doors closed and she felt the device lifting her up through the building. Stranger still to see the doors open on an entirely different floor where workers—mostly men as Stheno had indicated—buzzed around the office. A woman in a white business suit stood at the center of the commotion barking orders.
“Bigger font!” the woman said as she shoved a paper back into the hands of one of her underlings. “I want the press release to shout out the news. Sixteen point. Minimum!”
Stheno turned to Medusa and smiled. “Now the fun begins.” Stheno suddenly dropped her glamour. Her body turned from pink flesh to green scales. The snakes in her hair woke form their slumber as her grin turned from playful to sinister.
“Stheno!” Medusa whispered a horrified scream. “You said we weren’t going to reveal ourselves.”
Her grin grew wider, revealing her fangs. “Change of plans.”
Euryale giggled as she shrugged and dropped her own glamour. “As I said, I kind of like this body.”
Medusa was horrified by her sisters’ sudden reveal. This was not part of the plan. She wanted to grab them as they stepped out of the elevator, but it was too late. A man in a uniform was the first to see them. His shock did not paralyze him though. It moved him to action. He pulled a projectile device from his waist. It was a gun.
Medusa had to protect her sisters. She couldn’t let them be hurt. She’d seen just what guns could do in the images her sisters had provided.
The sunglasses were off in a moment, dropped to the floor as her glamour disappeared as well.
Right before the screaming started.
Chapter 14
The statue of Vaughn Ramsey stood in the living room of Prue’s castle in the exact spot it had been in since Paige orbed it there. They’d pulled off the switch perfectly, even with the little hiccup of the replacement statue having a complete meltdown when Paige and Piper returned it to the park.
Phoebe was monitoring social media on her phone while Prue and Piper tried altering the potion they’d made. It looked like the viral marketing campaign angle was becoming the go-to explanation, taking on a life of its own. Videos posted online by witnesses in the park were spreading, but not with the fiery speed Phoebe had seen other buzzworthy posts getting picked up. It helped that most people were shrugging it off as a dumb campaign for an out-of-touch media mogul and choosing not to promote his network. Added bonus was that his competition was ignoring the lack of story as well.
“We’re good so far,” Phoebe said as she put away her phone. “Are you sure we need to get the dwarf, fairy, and leprechaun back?”
Prue held up a finger as she poured the latest attempt at the potion over the statue. They all waited, but Ramsey remained solid as a rock. Prue added the empty potion bottle to the pile. “I don’t see any other option. I’m not even sure that will work.”
“Besides, Paige is already getting them,” Piper reminded her. “I doubt she’ll be happy if she gets back here and we tell her we sent her off for nothing. We treat her like a magical cab enough as it is.”
Prue circled the statue. “This is so strange. We’re at the Nexus of the All. You’d think magic would be even stronger here.”
“Certainly felt that way this morning,” Piper said. Prue didn’t seem to catch the concerned tone in her voice, but Phoebe couldn’t miss it. There was something weird about the magic this morning. Phoebe always felt a little odd here at the Nexus, but this was different.
“Something must have happened between then and now,” Phoebe said. “What if we try smashing it? Maybe he’s just inside a thin coating of stone.”
“And maybe we’ll break him into dozens of pieces that we can’t put back together again,” Prue said.
Phoebe shrugged, remembering the five-part investigative report his network had done on the hidden value of denying women certain medical services. “I don’t see the problem there.”
“Maybe whoever is doing this is getting stronger,” Piper suggested. “Learning from his mistakes.”
“Or her mistakes,” Prue added.
Phoebe was glad to see that Prue was onto her line of thought. “This is the second jackass we’ve had to rescue today. It’s possible that whoever is doing this isn’t just after powerful people. Maybe they are after powerful jackasses.”
“The two aren’t mutually exclusive,” Prue said.
“True,” Phoebe agreed. “But it could give us a clue. This might not be our typical demon. The congressman and this guy aren’t exactly innocents in the purest sense of the word. More like oppressive jerks that like to use their positions to tell other people how they should live. Could be we’re dealing with some witch gone rogue trying to teach them a lesson.”
“After spending a few minutes with the congressman this morning, I can relate,” Prue said. “But even so, no one should use magic for their own purposes. We learned that message the hard way. We’ve still got to figure out what’s going on and stop whoever is doing it.”
Phoebe nodded enthusiastically. “Absolutely. We must stop them. And then maybe give them a cookie.” She smiled as both of her sisters gave her that very specific look that she received so many times throughout her childhood.
Thankfully, Paige arrived with the reinforcements before they could say anything about her lighthearted joke. Not for the first time, Phoebe thought of all the things her sisters had been cheated of not knowing about Paige when they were growing up. In this moment, the mai
n thing Phoebe could focus on was the fact it would have been nice for someone else to be the baby of the family.
Then, she focused on the fact that they seemed to be missing someone. “Where’s the leprechaun?” Phoebe asked.
Paige held up a small black pot filled with what appeared to be gold, but Phoebe knew from experience was something else. “Couldn’t make it.” Paige shook the pot. “But he sent along some luck for us. We’ll make do with the dwarf and the fairy.”
The fairy giggled as she tried to dip her toes in the golden magic. Paige waved her away like she was swatting a fly.
“The dwarf has a name,” the shorter gentleman said as he leaned against his ax.
“We’re sorry,” Piper said. She was often the one that filled the role of apologizing for her family. “That was rude. We never have been formally introduced.”
“Well, I already know who you all are,” he replied, holding out a hand. “Name’s Stein. Francis Stein.”
Paige took it since she was closest. “Nice to meet you, Frankie. That’s kind of a traditional name for a dwarf, isn’t it?”
“Frank will be fine. Not all of us inspire cartoon characters,” he said as he sat on Prue’s couch. “Can’t tell you the fairy’s name and don’t think she’d want you to know. But I told you that spell wouldn’t work. You can’t just whip up essence of magical community. We’re not props you can use whenever you want to trot us out.”
Phoebe walked over to him. “Hmmm… seems like someone’s a bit--”
“Say ‘grumpy’ and you might just find the pointy end of my ax sticking out of your head.”
Phoebe stepped away from the dwarf. “Actually, I think I’ll go with psychotic sociopath.” The fairy laughed again, but Phoebe wasn’t sure if the tiny winged creature was laughing at what had been said or if she simply enjoyed threats of violence. Could go either way with fairies. In the magical community those little winged pests were really the closest to psychotic sociopaths, now that she thought about it.
Prue clapped her hands together like a kindergarten teacher, which told Phoebe that her sister was already learning how to deal with the magical community. “All right! The faster we do this, the faster you can get home. Up, up, up!”
Frank hopped off the couch and moved over to the statue of Vaughn Ramsey. “You sure you don’t want to keep him like this? Adds a touch of class to the joint.”
Prue sneered at the guy. “Positive. Now, if you don’t mind?”
He raised his ax. “Ready when you are.”
Prue nodded to the fairy, who flew over the statue’s head and sprinkled some pixie dust on it. Paige pulled a bit of luck from the small cauldron and threw it at Ramsey. Frank finished it off by swinging his ax where the media mogul would never want an ax to be swung.
It didn’t work.
“He’s still stone,” Piper said, stating the obvious.
Frank swung again, taking a small chip out of the statue’s arm.
“Hey!” Prue yelled. “Careful there. We’d like to return him in one piece.”
Paige held up another circle of golden magic. “Should we try it again?”
Phoebe’s phone rang and she was thankful for the distraction. She glanced at the screen and decided it was a call she had to take. Without even bothering to interrupt the argument that was brewing between Prue and Frank, Phoebe started moving out of the room. “Hey, Elise. What’s up?”
“You know how you asked me to keep that news about statues appearing out of nowhere off the radar?” her boss asked over the phone.
“It’s on the radar now?” Phoebe guessed. She stopped short of the hallway.
“And how.”
“I’m putting you on speaker.” Phoebe turned back and pressed the speaker button on her phone and held it out for her sisters to hear. She ignored the annoyed glare that Frank threw her way.
“Another one of those statues turned up,” Elise said. “Actually a dozen of them. And it wasn’t in a park this time. It was in the offices of Carolyn Barnes.”
“Carolyn Barnes?” Phoebe said. “Why do I know that name?”
“The Gorgon Gaze,” Elise filled in the blank that immediately made things click in Phoebe’s mind.
“That witch!” It was out of Phoebe’s mouth before she realized what she was saying. She smiled an apology toward her sisters. “And I mean that in the most ignorant, stereotypical sense of the word.”
“And here you’re always teaching me about the subtle persecution of witches through modern slang,” Elise said lightly over the phone.
Phoebe laughed, darkly. “Yeah, sometimes I break the rules myself. I try not to do it in front of the girls. But she really is a horrible person. You don’t know the number of letters and emails I get from readers that refuse to acknowledge their husbands or boyfriends are even a little responsible for cheating on them. They quote that hateful anti-woman propaganda that Barnes spews like they’re cutting and pasting from one of her books.”
Prue chimed in, derailing Phoebe off before she went into full rant mode. “But back to the point, Elise. Someone got to her?”
“And some of her staff,” Elise said. “But that’s not the worst of it.”
Phoebe groaned. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“Just sent it to your phone.” As soon as it was out of Elise’s mouth, a video popped up in Phoebe’s text messages.
Phoebe ignored the dwarf’s continued grumbles as she motioned for her sisters to gather closer and pressed play. The video was jerky and hard to make out, but the screams on the audio were clear. About a dozen voices—mostly men—provided a soundtrack for the images of bodies running past the camera, jostling the person holding it. The video remained jerky as the screams subsided one-by-one.
The camera swung wildly, as the person holding it ran for the exit. The image alternated from in front of him to behind him as if the person filming couldn’t decide which was more important: escape or capturing the moment to go viral.
Viral must have won out as the camera paused when the owner reached the exit. He took one last shot at the forest of statues in the office. It was nearly impossible to see past the stone people, but Phoebe could make out three shapes that looked somewhat human, but not quite. They were green, with glowing eyes, and what looked to be snakes writhing on their heads.
Phoebe paused the video. The image wasn’t clear at all. It was nearly impossible to make anything out. And yet she was absolutely certain of what she was seeing. “Looks like we can put Medusa back on the list.”
“And her sisters,” Paige agreed. “Fitting they’d attack a website named for them. Probably want to collect on the money Barnes has made using their images.” Paige smiled wide, but the grin got weaker when she realized her sisters were staring at her. “What? It’s not like the woman didn’t deserve it.”
“Her employees don’t,” Piper said. “They’re just doing their job.”
“At a horrible website,” Phoebe said. “But that’s not the point. Is it, Elise?”
“No,” her boss’s voice came back through the phone. “Nobody knows what to make of this attack, but after the congressman’s statue appeared in the park and Vaughn Ramsey is still missing after his statue molted or whatever…”
All four sisters looked over at the statue. He wasn’t so much missing as he was indisposed.
“You can’t keep it quiet anymore,” Phoebe guessed.
“It’s news,” Elise said. “Weird, inexplicable news, but news. It’s gone up on every local news website in the last five minutes. No one knows what to make of this attack and I certainly won’t be sharing what I know just for page views, but if another big name disappears, it will go from human interest to lead story. This video is already viral.”
“I’m sure the guy who took it is so glad he can get some joy out of his coworkers’ being attacked,” Piper sa
id.
“That was fast,” Phoebe said. “I was just looking for anything related to stone cold Vaughn Ramsey online.”
“Only a few sites have made the connection so far,” Elise said.
“Thanks for letting us know,” Phoebe replied. “Hopefully we’ll have something before it gets that far.”
“I’ll keep you posted from here,” Elise said as they ended the call.
Prue looked around her living room as Phoebe put away her phone. “Why do I have the feeling that my home is about to become a museum?”
Frank cleared his throat—excessively—like he had an actual frog in there he was trying to get out. “You know, we don’t have all day to stand around here. We haven’t even been offered a snack.”
Prue looked to Paige. “Can you get another pizza? I think my company might be here a while.”
“With bacon and anchovies,” the dwarf said. “I can’t speak for the fairy.”
The winged creature just giggled as was the way of fairies, but Paige had become well versed in translating their laughs. “I’ll get two,” she said as she orbed away.
That settled, Piper turned away from their guests to focus at the issue at hand. “This one’s going to be a bit harder to pull off. That building is going to have a ton of media attention thanks to that shaky video. To say nothing about the police that I’m sure are already investigating. I doubt Henry can do anything about that and I don’t need Paige here to tell us.”
“Yeah, but if the statues don’t disintegrate like the last one, people will be asking more questions,” Phoebe said. “We kind of screwed ourselves with that.”
“On the bright side it explains how the statue of the congressman disappeared out of that truck this morning,” Piper replied.