Title: Cleansweeper
By: Bridget McKennitt
Character: Original Character
Rating: G
Word Count: 662
Summary: Ever wondered why the Charmed Ones' secret hasn't been revealed to the world at large yet? It's because of Cleansweepers like Trinity.
Contains: No warnings in as far I know that can't be extrapolated from the header itself.
Disclaimer: Charmed is owned by other companies. They are used here without permission, and for entertainment purposes only. No challenge or infringement upon the copyright is intended, nor should any be inferred.
The city of San Francisco was alive and busy that Monday morning.
People were rushing to work while life from the weekend break settled back
into gear.
None of this mattered to the woman walking down Fifth Avenue. She was
on assignment and that was her first priority. A witch had vanquished a warlock
in an alleyway earlier, but there were witnesses. Passerbys. No less than three.
The human mind was a grand device. If the human did not believe in magic
or in the supernatural, then their mind would work its damnedest to reassure
them that what they saw was a figment of their imagination. No matter how many
times magic slapped them in the face. But human minds weren't perfect. Despite
reassurances, there would always be kernels of doubt.
Her assignment was to erase those kernels of doubt. Even a casual remark
to other humans could expose their world.
She found her last target sitting on a bench reading the newspaper. She
adjusted her sunglasses and sat down next to him.
Her magic drifted on invisible threads and entered the human. This
process was delicate. She did not want to destroy her target's mind. The magic
searched through his memory banks for the incident that happened earlier.
Quickly she changed that memory with a new one. He saw nothing in that alleyway
while passing by. Nothing.
She sealed the spell with a word and rose from the bench. Her assignment
was done and another minor crisis was averted.
Trinity was a Cleansweeper, a being that worked for The Powers That Be.
They kept the magical world a secret to the humans at large. She covered the
tracks of both the Elders' agents as well as the Underworld's agents. Humans
had to be kept in the dark.
Some assignments, like this one, were rather easy. A little memory fixing
here and there was all she needed to do. Other times, it took more work. Take
for example with the Charmed Ones. They had become active witches a couple of
years back, a drop of sand in Trinity's hourglass, yet they caused more duties
for Cleansweepers than all the witches in the world combined.
The girls just did not understand the work it took to keep their secret
and the secrets of the magical community hidden. They never bothered to keep
their voices down in public while talking about demons and spells. Actually,
they usually talked about such things in crowded rooms. They fought demons in
their home, making their neighbors forever suspicious about them. They had
revealed their secrets to humans, whether accidentally or purposely, but still
revealing nevertheless.
The worse incident though was when the two older witches decided to
vanquish a demon in broad daylight. In front of a camera crew. On live television.
Fortunately that incident took care of itself when time had reversed itself. The
oldest sister had died, but Trinity wasn't that sympathetic. The oldest was usually
using her powers in front of humans without a care in the world. It made Trinity's
work that much harder.
Then the Charmed Ones discovered they had a younger sister. She was just
as bad as the late oldest sister in using her powers in public. Even worse, her
orbs were much more visible. But they were the Elders' top agents and Trinity had
to keep her complaining down to a minimum. Still Trinity refused to be assigned
to them by herself and required at least six other Cleansweepers with her. She
figured two for each sister would keep leakage from spilling over to the humans.
Trinity flipped open her planner and saw she had another assignment. It
seemed a demon had killed a witch in her apartment. She had to go and clear away
the witch's magical supplies before the police arrived. Wouldn't want them to get
suspicious.
She adjusted her sunglasses and headed towards the witch's apartment around
the block. Such was the life of a Cleansweeper.
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