Charmed: Let Gorgons Be Gorgons

by Paul Ruditis

  “And yet is hasn’t stopped them from doing it,” Paige said with an eye on the growing sculpture garden in Prue’s living room. “I wish I could be this productive when I’m indecisive.”

  Piper crossed her arms, contemplatively. “Maybe Medusa’s forcing them to do this. Leo did say she was supposed to be dead. It’s possible she came back somehow and took control of her sisters who were living quietly on their own for thousands of years managing not to turn people to stone.”

  “And maybe her sisters woke her, forcing her to go along with their plan as a sign of appreciation for getting her life back,” Prue countered, taking Piper’s comment a little more personally than she intended. Her sister obviously wasn’t comparing their situations, but something about this whole thing was getting under Prue’s skin. Then again, she already had a lot of conflicting magic under that same skin, so it was possibly a bit of that as well. Her tattoos had been shifting ominously ever since she tried to tap into the power of the Nexus of the All.

  “Either way, it might be something we could exploit,” Phoebe suggested. “Identify the weak link and appeal to her to stop what they’re doing or at least slow down.”

  Paige looked to Prue. “You said something about the gorgons’ plans? Didn’t happen to get an itinerary, did you?”

  Prue laughed. If only it were that easy. “Nothing that clear. I just knew they were about to attack someone. I tried it again this morning right before I sent you that text and the same thing happened.”

  “But you didn’t see who the victim was?” Piper asked.

  “No, but I felt like the person was right there in front of me. Just out of reach.” Prue held out a hand as an example. “The victim had been closer to me than you three are right now. But the magic didn’t reveal who it was until after the fact. And then it was too late.”

  “Think you can do it again?” Paige asked. “Maybe you’ll get better with practice. We might be able to actually stop an attack.”

  “Or at least show up before the media arrives,” Phoebe said.

  Prue shrugged. “I can try.”

  Prue sat down on the floor, crossing her legs and closing her eyes. She concentrated on the Nexus and the magic that rested inside her body. She had absorbed a powerful object of magic from each side in the battle of good and evil. Those items rested inside her now—ever-present—a part of her. It was that magic she called on to guide her.

  The Nexus of the All connected with her immediately, combining with her own magic and reaching out through the human world. Her body remained in its prison, but her essence filled the world. It was different from the astral projection she had been able to access before her death. Prue was still trapped in her prison. It was more like her connection to the world at large was traveling, not her. It wasn’t even a conscious thing. More like an emotional one.

  Prue honed in on her hometown. Flashes of San Francisco filled her mind. Brief images that connected her with the place where she’d been raised and caused her, once again, to miss the life that she’d lost. The images flooded her mind as she bounced from neighborhood to neighborhood, seeking out magic. San Francisco was something of a hub of magical influence on Earth, likely due to the presence of the Charmed Ones. Prue had to pick through that magic to find what she was looking for. She could feel her family in every neighborhood. It was something she’d never noticed back when she was alive.

  It took some time, but eventually she made the connection that was quickly starting to feel familiar. The conflict she’d felt earlier was still there. If anything, it had gotten deeper, filled with a new deception.

  Prue felt an ancient magic, older than the city. It wasn’t an unusual phenomenon. Some of the magic the Charmed Ones had fought was as old as the world itself. Older. But this felt like the right one. It wasn’t all that different from the feeling she had when she was with her own sisters. It had to be the gorgons.

  Prue’s eyes popped open. “They’ve got another Innocent in their sights. I can’t tell you who or where, but I think I can send you there. You might even be able to reach him before the gorgons get there.”

  “So, it’s another him?” Phoebe said with a glance toward the statues, which were overwhelmingly male.

  “Definitely male,” Prue said. “Strong. Young. But that’s all I’ve got.”

  “Then that’s all we need.” Piper grabbed Phoebe, who got a grasp on Paige in turn. Paige held out her hand to connect with Prue’s arm which was filled with those shifting tattoos. They’d used this method before to communicate, and it worked again. The look in Paige’s eyes confirmed that she knew where to go and she didn’t waste time getting there. The trio orbed away to deal with the attack, leaving Prue behind as she sat with her legs crossed, floating several inches over the floor.

  As they left, Prue received her clearest image yet. Across the world, her sisters materialized in the middle of a college stadium filled with strong young men in the middle of a track meet. There were strong young women as well. And spectators. And a lot of cameras.

  As the image began to fade, Prue worried that the gorgons were about to step up their plan with another very public attack. And she’d sent her sisters there with hundreds of potential targets and no way to narrow them down to their Innocent.

  Prue drifted down to the floor as she once again felt completely helpless, trapped and alone thousands of miles away from the action.

  Chapter 21

  Medusa did not like what she was seeing.

  No. That wasn’t true. She loved the sight. She loved it more than she could express. And that was exactly the problem.

  Her brown human eyes had returned. So much like the color of the soil her father struggled to farm when she was a child. She immediately felt like herself again, in spite of the snakes softly hissing beneath her glamour. What was it Euryale had said earlier? Something about “the eyes being the window to the soul”? These brown eyes were a window to her human soul, one that she never wanted to close.

  But she would have to close them to avoid Stheno seeing them for herself. It had taken every argument Medusa could come up with to keep Stheno from making another spectacle with the other victims they’d chosen overnight. Medusa had tried to convince her sisters to put a stop to their plan entirely, but that had been useless. The best she could do was agree to help them in exchange for remaining anonymous. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

  Now that her eyes no longer looked like those of the serpents she wore on her head, everything would change. It meant her power was at full strength and, by default, so were Stheno’s and Euryale’s. They didn’t need to remain tied to this city any longer to use their magic. They didn’t need to be linked with Medusa.

  It was that last part that worried her the most. As long as Stheno and Euryale were with her, Medusa could watch them and try to rein them in. Once they were on their own again, free to wreak havoc unchecked, she could no longer affect their actions.

  Her sisters were only in this situation because of her. They had gone to Athena to defend Medusa and beg for the curse to be undone. It hadn’t ended well.

  Once again, Medusa had to remind herself that the guilt she felt was misplaced. This was not her fault. None of it was. Poseidon had stolen her virtue. Athena had punished her for it instead of the man who really was to blame. The gods of Ancient Greece were all power-mad, and history apparently had forgiven them for their transgressions, but Medusa had not.

  But history had also stolen her opportunity for vengeance. Athena was gone. Nothing more than a story to the people of today. And Stheno’s plan for revenge, while noble in its misguided way, was just as misdirected as Athena’s actions had been. Whether or not Medusa was responsible for any of it was unimportant. Stheno and Euryale were her sisters. And she was responsible for them.

  As Medusa looked longingly into the brown eyes reflected at her in the screen of the
cell phone she’d slipped out of Euryale’s bag, she regretfully used her glamour to change them back to their cursed form. As long as neither sister gazed too closely into them, she should be able to stall them in their grand plan.

  She was beginning to think it might be better to be free of her sisters. Let Stheno do what she wanted and leave it for someone else to correct. Otherwise Medusa would have to follow her around the world turning Stheno’s victims back to normal. The one saving grace in this was that Medusa was still the most powerful by far.

  In an odd way, Euryale was slightly more of a concern. Medusa could not even anticipate the kind of trouble her more free-spirited sister would create.

  There was another phrase Medusa had learned that perfectly explained Euryale with magic: like a bull in a china shop. Even worse than a sister with an agenda was one that made decisions on a whim.

  At the heart of it, these were still her sisters and she did love them. She just needed to get them to focus on that love as well and allow that to move them past the trouble they wanted to create. But how would she work through issues that had taken thousands of years to create. Maybe it would have been better if they’d died along with her in the past.

  “Has anybody seen my phone?” Euryale called from the lush hotel living room that they had set up as their temporary home.

  “I’ve got it.” Medusa put her sunglasses back on to cover up the glamoured eyes. She came out of the bedroom, handing her sister back her connection to the world. “I was checking my image again. No change.”

  “You can’t be serious?” Stheno said. “I would have thought your magic would be strong enough by now. Let me see.”

  Medusa stepped back as Stheno moved to her. “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Of course I do.” Stheno continued reaching for the glasses. “I just want to see if there’s any difference at all. Maybe a little brown around the edges.”

  Medusa took another step back as the sisters stared one another down. She was fairly certain that Stheno was trying to see through the darkened lenses. It was clear that she didn’t trust Medusa. Not that it mattered because the glamour was more than strong enough with the manufactured darkness between them.

  What really hurt Medusa was that they’d once been close. The three of them had shared a bond long before they had discovered that they possessed magic. And that discovery had only made their relationship grow. They’d been incredible with their gifts, saving the world from any number of horrors the gods and goddesses had let loose on the world.

  But Athena’s curse, coupled with thousands of years apart, had twisted their relationship into something darker than the glasses that stood between them. Medusa had to find a way to her get sister back. Once she had Stheno, Euryale would follow. That was her way.

  Stheno smiled warmly and placed a hand on Medusa’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Medusa. You don’t have to show me anything. I do believe you. I’ve just missed you for so long that I want us all to be back at full strength. That will be the first step to reclaiming our lives. It’s possible we just need to step up our use of this cursed magic we possess.”

  Medusa had no doubt Stheno was being genuine. There was still love there. But there was also Stheno’s plan. “Can’t we rest? We’ve been at it all night.”

  Euryale let out a cackle of laughter. “You rested for over two thousand years. If I were you, I’d be out enjoying all the world had to offer.”

  “I wasn’t resting,” Medusa reminded her. Euryale did have a penchant for tactlessness.

  “Well, you were at peace,” Euryale countered. “You didn’t have to live out this cursed existence. Honestly, I think you’d be a little more grateful to Stheno. She went along with your plan and stayed in her glamour even though yesterday’s big reveal was a total bust. Everybody thinks that stunt at the website was just that… a stunt.”

  “It is frustrating,” Stheno said. “We need to do something on a grander scale. Announce ourselves to the world. That might give you the final push that you need to bring yourself to full strength. Truth be told, I feel like you’ve been holding back a bit.”

  Medusa pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose to make sure they were secure. There was no way out of this. Stheno would keep pushing until she got what she wanted. Medusa could only stall so long. “One time,” she said. “I will bring down my glamour once. So you’d best make it count.”

  Stheno’s face broke into a satisfied smile. “Oh, I intend to. I know just the man.”

  Paige was disoriented when she completed the orb. She had to pause for a second and close her eyes to get her bearings, shutting out the sound of the crowd. It was an odd feeling. Typically, orbing was just like stepping into the next room for her. She’d long since gotten used to her body bursting into hundreds of tiny glowing orbs and reappearing as far away as the other side of the world.

  This wasn’t the first time she’d traveled somewhere based on a location provided by Prue’s tattoos. It was an unusual sensation, but nothing compared to this. Thankfully, the dizziness subsided after a moment.

  “Paige? Are you okay?” Piper asked.

  Paige opened her eyes to see her sister watching her with concern, but the feeling had already passed. It was probably just her lack of breakfast. Nothing to worry about. Then she looked beyond them to see the heap of trouble they’d orbed themselves into. “I was fine until I saw where we are.”

  “Yeah,” Phoebe said. “This is going to be a problem.”

  The stadium was packed, which was especially odd for a weekday. Paige didn’t recognize it, but she guessed it was one of the local college campuses. Some sort of track meet was going on. Had to involve at least a dozen other schools if the number of people crowding the place was any indication. It was the largest group of Innocents all in one place that the Charmed Ones had ever come across in their magical careers. Prue’s assist had landed them right in one of the entrances to the field, neatly out of the way from the many prying eyes. It was the only saving grace so far.

  “I don’t even know where to begin,” Piper said.

  “Can you freeze them all?” Paige asked.

  “I… guess?”

  Piper had frozen larger areas in her lifetime, but never this many people. There had to be thousands. And that wasn’t even counting everyone not currently on the field or in the stands. Just the thought of all the people potentially at the concessions, in the locker rooms, and in the bathrooms that could come back into the stadium at any moment was a daunting proposition to Paige and it wasn’t even her power that was going to have to handle them all.

  “Maybe we could start a fire,” Phoebe said, prompting her sisters to look at her as if she’d gone insane. “A small one! Just enough to get everyone to evacuate.”

  “Yes,” Paige said, though she wasn’t really agreeing. “Because having someone shout ‘fire’ in a crowded stadium seems like a great idea.”

  “As opposed to shouting ‘monster’ when the gorgons arrive,” Phoebe countered. “That’s going to be a hundred times the panic.”

  “I can do it,” Piper said, not sounding sure of herself at all. “I just need to concentrate.”

  “Better start now!” Paige said just as the screaming began.

  Piper’s hands went up and everyone on the field froze a half-second before all the people in the stands. It was a barely perceptible difference in timing, but Paige noticed. She doubted anyone else did. The people in the stands didn’t even hear the screams that had just begun when Piper cut them off. Only one man and one woman had seen the gorgons appear. The noise from the crowd drowned out their terror until Piper could press pause. Paige had to wonder what the pair would think when they unfroze, assuming everything went well.

  Piper kept her hands up. “I think I got them all. But I have to keep my focus for anyone that comes into the stadium. You two go. Stop the gorgons.”


  Phoebe was already on the move. “Oh, sure. Give us the hard job.”

  Paige was right behind her. The gorgons had surrounded one of the athletes on the field. Paige didn’t question why the people screamed when they saw the green, scaly creatures with horrible expressions and the signature snakes in the hair that seemed to be their calling card. She probably would have done the same if she hadn’t already seen much worse.

  At first, Paige thought the gorgons froze along with everyone else, but the writhing snakes told her otherwise. They were unaffected by Piper’s power, which wasn’t completely unusual, but still rare. Piper had grown much stronger in recent years, as the stadium full of immobile bodies would attest.

  The athlete was already caught in the gorgons’ gaze and not going anywhere. The creature in front of him was staring right into his eyes. The other two were just as focused on him, though their eyes did not meet his. As Paige approached, she saw that he’d already turned to stone.

  “They didn’t freeze,” Phoebe warned as they got closer.

  “I noticed. Whatever you do, don’t look in their eyes.”

  “That’s going to be hard since they’re coming right at us.” Phoebe stopped a couple of steps ahead of her sister.

  Paige pulled up short when she realized the gorgons had turned their focus from the stone athlete to the Charmed Ones. She and Phoebe both looked to the ground, careful to keep the gorgons in their peripheral vision. Paige kept her hands raised, ready to orb the gorgons back to Greece if they moved any closer. No matter their motivation, Paige wasn’t about to mess with them. She’d already been turned to stone once in her life. It was not an experience she wanted to repeat.

  One of the gorgons spoke: “Why did you stop us from delivering our message? Do you know what this man has done?”

  “Don’t really care right now,” Paige said, although she’d already figured it out when she got a closer look at the victim. “What you’re doing here isn’t safe. And it certainly isn’t the best way to make your point. Not going to convince many people that this guy is a monster when they’re focused on you.”