Post by adzpower on Aug 28, 2016 6:21:14 GMT -5
Charmed Reborn Chapter Three: “A Day in the Life”
The sun had risen by the time Prue Halliwell woke up in the morning, she stifled a big yawn and drew back her curtains, allowing the golden rays to wash over her, almost energizing her for the day, who was she kidding? That was the coffee’s job.
She threw on some casual clothes, a black t-shirt and some jeans and headed downstairs, as usual she was the first one up, she walked outside to grab the morning paper and headed towards the kitchen, put the coffee pot on and put some bread in the toaster, she went to the refrigerator with the intention of getting some of Piper’s delicious homemade blackcurrant jam only to notice a half drunk bottle of wine on the bottom shelf, don’t need that anymore, she thought to herself proudly before proceeding to wiggle her finger and make the bottle zoom into the trashcan.
She grabbed the jam and carried on with her breakfast, checking all the latest news in the paper as she ate.
She heard some soft footsteps behind her, but it was only Kit, coming into the kitchen for her morning feed.
After Prue fed her and got all her equipment together she made her way to the car, she had a big shoot today for a bridal spread in her magazine, a local store had sponsored it and allowed them to use their dresses, Prue had looked them over last night and she had to admit they were beautiful, made her think of all she will probably miss out on, she hadn’t really been interested in finding someone since Andy had died, she had tried her best to stay in the game but she had finally come to the realization that she was just fine being on her own for now, if it happened, it happened.
She smiled as she got into the car thinking back to Piper’s wedding day, how it had all been a complete disaster what with her astral self running wild and getting arrested for murder, just another day at Halliwell manor she thought.
The shoot was in golden gate park, beautiful day for it she thought as she got out her car thirty minutes later ready for work.
She took her equipment out of the trunk and walked across the soft morning grass, heading down to the spot that she would be working in.
They’d chosen a really pretty area with some serene benches, colorful flowers and where you could see the bridge clearly in the background, shooting out into the sky like a stairway to heaven.
“Uhh, Miss Halliwell?”
Prue groaned, not again she thought as she reached the spot.
Her annoying intern was here already waiting for her, he seemed a nice enough guy, but he kept getting things very wrong.
“Oh, hi Chip”, she grinned widely.
Her boss had informed her early that week that the magazine she worked for, 415, had recently undertaken an internship program that would allow college students to get a part time job with them whilst doing their degree to get some hands on experience.
And Prue had been lumbered with Chip.
He was pretty to look at she supposed, all teeth and glossy slicked back dark hair, but way too young for her she thought.
“I have all the dresses lined up for you over here” he pointed to the left.
“And all the models this way” he pointed to the right.
“Sounds great Chip”, “Are they ready for me?” Prue asked.
“Sure, sure, they’re just waiting for you to set up so we can get started”.
“Ok, tell them I’ll be about 10 minutes, thanks Chip” she dismissed him so she could set up her camera equipment, recently she had been keen on advancing her skills at digital photography, since as with any other industry, if you don’t move with the times you get left behind.
Three hours later and Prue was on her lunch break, she sat alone on one of the nice benches when her phone started to ring.
She answered, “Hello”.
“Hey Prue, it’s me, Darryl” came an anxious voice.
“Darryl hi, it’s been a while since I saw you last”.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, it’s been a pretty hectic couple of months”
“Tell me about it” Prue rolled her eyes as she thought about all the stress she had been under recently.
“Sooooo I take it this isn’t a personal call?” she asked suspiciously.
“Well, no” Darryl answered.
“To be honest I’ve been trying to keep this away from you for as long as possible, but I don’t think it’s going to be possible anymore”.
“Keep what away Darryl? You’re making me nervous”.
“There’s an Inspector who has been wanting to get in touch with you for some time now, his name is Cortez”.
“Get in touch with me, about what?” Prue asked, curious.
“A well-known, well respected doctor died at the manor Prue, and he wants answers”.
Prue remembered Dr Griffiths, an innocent that they had lost a few months ago thanks to The Source’s assassin, Shax, who they still needed to pay back for what he had done, she added it to her mental to do list.
“Ok, so what? He wants an interview?”
“Maybe that and more, just listen out for his phone call ok?”
“Sure, and Darryl, thanks for the heads up”.
“No problem, talk to you soon Prue”.
They hung up and Prue carried on with her lunch, her favorite, a no mayo turkey sandwich.
As she ate she thought about what Darryl had said, about someone being suspicious about a lost innocent, it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened but it didn’t stop her from worrying, dig deep enough and eventually you’ll find something, she made another note on her to do list, human proof the manor, i.e. somehow hide all the magical items they had. Then again they could always just have Piper freeze him if he found something, thinking about that reminded her of when Andy was searching the manor for a lost tiara, Piper had to keep freezing him whilst Phoebe hid it somewhere else, all thanks to Rex and Hannah, who Prue did not feel much hatred towards now after they had sacrificed themselves to help the sisters save Phoebe, I hope they’re somewhere nice now she thought as she finished her lunch and picked up her bag, she had some equipment to drop off in the car before she resumed the shoot.
As she made her way across the park and under some trees she felt a presence behind her, she turned and came almost face to face with Chip.
“You forgot something, witch” he snarled as he threw an energy ball at her chest.
Prue went sailing through the air and landed in a crumpled heap at the base of a tree.
“I knew you were too useless to be human!” Prue yelled as she stood.
Chip threw another energy ball, but this time Prue was ready, she raised her hand and deflected it, sending it back the way it came, but Chip dodged it at the last minute.
Prue was surprised, he had looked like someone out of The Matrix evading that attack.
Time to get physical, she thought as she astral projected right in front of Chip, raising her arm to punch him around the face, but he caught her fist, twisted her arm and kicked her in the stomach knocking her back down. She wasn’t going down that easily, she stood and flipped over him, kicking him in the back of the legs as she landed, he fell hard and she kicked him in the stomach. Knocking the breath out of him.
“Since my sister was kidnapped, I always carry one of these” Prue yelled as she produced an athame and bought it home into Chip’s chest, he screamed as his body set alight and fell to ash, leaving a small patch of charred grass in its wake.
Prue didn’t know where she’d be without her fighting skills, she had survived without them but it wasn’t until she had been cursed with the empath power last year that she had somehow hacked into Vinceres’ and Phoebe’s emotions and copied their fighting skills, she still had no idea how that worked but she wasn’t going to complain, they certainly had their uses.
What a strange demon Prue thought, he had fake college documents, gotten into an internship and somehow made his way to her, she hadn’t really encountered demons with espionage as a main skill before, seemed like an awful lot of trouble, demons were usually less subtle.
She’d ask Leo about it later she decided as she went to carry on with her photoshoot. Luckily she managed to digitally edit the charred grass to look alive.
Piper got out the shower and made her way back to her bedroom to get ready for the day, she loved the shower, she always felt like her troubles were sliding off her with the water running down into the plughole.
She wished Leo was here, but he’d had to orb off somewhere last night to help one of his charges, she had to kind of admit, she hated her husband’s job, he could be gone for days at a time and he wasn’t even paid for it, she realized he was doing good work, great work in fact, but it didn’t change the fact that she missed him.
She dried and put some clothes on, a black long sleeved shirt with a pair of brown leather pants, she looked pretty good she thought as she made her way downstairs, she saw that Prue had left the paper on the counter with the ready-made coffee, God bless older sisters Piper thought as she poured herself a cup. She turned to the food and culture section of the paper, she always liked to see if there were any new recipes she could use for her cooking.
For all the stress it gave her she actually missed her job at Quake, the restaurant she had managed for a while, at least she got to be close to food there but whilst she loved P3, it was just a club, and she didn’t get to fulfil her dream of being a professional chef.
One day she thought, one day. When The Source was finally gone and they could go back to having semi-normal lives. She didn’t ever want to stop being a witch, helping people was in her blood, but she’d definitely like to open her own place one day.
She shook herself out of the fantasy and made herself a muffin to go. She was already running late and she needed to set up P3 for a cool gig tonight, a bunch of local bands were coming to play to raise money for charity, it not only was a good cause but made her club look good as well.
Just as she was about to reach the front door Leo orbed down in front of her smiling like a Cheshire cat.
“Hey there wife” he said.
Piper smiled, “hey there husband”.
She drew him into a hug and pulled him out the door with her.
“Where we going?” he asked.
“Gotta get to P3 to set up” Piper said hurriedly as she threw her bag onto the back seat.
They had been driving for about ten minutes when Leo piped up, “How’s Phoebe doing?”
Piper sighed, it was a sore subject, Phoebe hadn’t been doing great.
“She’s getting there, I think, yesterday she actually came down to the kitchen to get a sandwich all by herself”.
“Ahh”, Leo said, nodding his head.
“Progress” he stated.
“Yep, sort of” Piper grimaced.
“So yesterday I met with a charge, because they needed my help, it was two witches who had just had a baby with the power to go invisible” he said.
“Wow, must be hard work” Piper said.
“Well it made me think that when we have kids, we should bind their powers”.
Piper smashed down on the break in the middle of the road.
“What?!” she yelled.
Leo shrank back, suddenly wary of the subject.
Piper calmed herself down and said in her deadliest, quietest voice.
“No way, not gonna happen”.
“I think, we should discuss this” Leo said.
“There’s nothing to discuss, magic is a gift Leo, imagine how much more prepared we’d be right now if we’d had our powers since birth”.
“The difference being that our child will be raised around three witches who have their powers, and can teach the child”.
“What exactly will we be teaching it if it hasn’t got any powers?” Piper questioned.
“Because you can teach it without the fear of it orbing out to Thailand every time you scold them” Leo insisted.
“End of discussion Leo, not gonna happen”.
“Ok, well what about this? Say our kid inherits Phoebe’s power of premonition, and grows up having visions every day of people dying and disaster, and since they’re a child they won’t be able to do anything about it because they’ll be stuck in school” Leo raised his eyebrows. He knew he had gotten the upper hand.
“I see your point Leo, I really do, but why are we even talking about this? We aren’t even trying yet, were no one where near that, and I agree with you, if the baby has premonitions then we will find some way to stop them until they’re older, happy?”
Leo nodded and sighed, he hadn’t meant the debate to get so heated.
“I gotta go” he said and orbed out the car just as Piper reached P3.
Piper hung her head, she hated arguing with Leo, especially about this topic, they hadn’t even really discussed kids yet, they both knew one was coming at some point thanks to going to the future and meeting her, but she could come along at any time. And probably not any time soon if the way things were going were the way they were going to stay.
She entered the club and walked down the stairs to see that the club had pretty much all been set up already, thank the heavens for her new assistant manager Wally. He had been a God send thought Piper. He had been so helpful since Phoebe had gone missing, essentially running the place for her. She owed that guy a raise for sure.
She went to the locker room to put her stuff away, she opened the door and an energy ball came hurtling out the room and into her face, knocking her backwards and into the bar.
“What the hell?” Piper murmured to herself as she got up.
She looked into the locker room, it was Wally. Bright red hair and freckles. He had been such a great help over the last few weeks, and he was a demon.
Of course Piper thought as she dusted off her hands.
“I really have to hand it you Piper, you really are a schmuck” he smiled.
“You work for The Source?” he asked, slowly making her way to him.
“Something like that” he answered.
“I didn’t think it would be so easy to get this close to a Charmed One, but you’re all so gullible I don’t even know why I was worried” he sneered.
“You think you know so much?” she asked.
“You’re wrong” she stated as she threw up her hands, Wally had frozen.
She had been meaning to blow him up but her power was so unpredictable these days, she concentrated hard, her trigger for freezing was usually fear, so what did she feel when blowing things up? She thought for a while, when she blew up the banshee she had been stressed, and when she blew up the door that led to the furies she had been feeling the same thing, well, she had had no shortage of the stress feeling lately, she concentrated and channelled that emotion into her being and threw up her hands, nothing happened for about five seconds but then Wally unfroze, started bulging and then blew up into flames.
She had done it, she gave herself a little cheer, she had finally learnt the trigger to her exploding power.
Such a shame though, she thought, now she had to find a new assistant manager.
Phoebe was in bed, she had been there a lot lately, the comfy pillows, the security of a blanket, so much nicer than a hard cage floor, her back was still sore from the amount of time she’d spent in it.
Not that she was a psychology expert or anything, but she thought maybe she was suffering some kind of PTSD, at least that’s what Prue had suggested the other day, that she go and see someone about what had happened. The conversation hadn’t gone well.
She sighed as she thought back to it.
“What am I supposed to do Prue? Tell the doctor I was trapped in a cage for two months whilst being tortured by The Source of all Evil?” she’d yelled as Prue walked away with tears in her eyes.
She was only trying to help, Phoebe knew that, but she wasn’t one to admit when she desperately needed saving. Damsel in distress she wasn’t, though a point could be argued that recently, she was.
More than anything she missed Cole, her sisters had told her that he had a part to play in saving her but they hadn’t seen him since, so he was probably dead, or captured.
She knew she should be up and about and seeing what she could do about that but she felt so lethargic, like she just couldn’t muster up any energy.
She’d also been having more nightmares, if she was honest that was the real reason she’d been keeping herself to herself, The Source had done something to her, something to make her almost fearful of her sisters, even though they had risked everything to save her, she felt so guilty and ashamed.
“What do I do with myself” she wondered aloud.
“You get up off that behind and find yourself some action” a voice echoed around her room.
Phoebe sat up bolt right, “huh?” she said aloud.
A mass of white orbs gathered in the centre of her room, clustering together to form a familiar figure, Grams.
“Not the best time Grams, I have self-pitying and sleeping to do”.
“Yes I’ve been watching, me and your mother have been extremely worried about you my darling, but its time you got back on the horse”.
“Grams, I don’t really wanna talk about sex with you, no offence but I have a boyfriend, had”.
“I’m not talking about sex silly, I mean any kind of action! Some demon fighting, saving an innocent, like the good old days”.
“Oh, the good old days of almost three months ago you mean?” Phoebe questioned sarcastically.
“Phoebe” Grams said in that gentle voice, “you need to get back out there, find yourself again”.
“You’ll never live if you don’t”.
“But I don’t know how, I can’t face Prue or Piper, I feel guilty enough as it is.”
“Guilty over what?” Grams said, concerned.
“It’s nothing, I’m fine” Phoebe slumped back down.
“We both know you’re not sweetheart, don’t lie to yourself, but don’t let it control you, don’t let HIM control you”.
“Good luck” she faded away as she blew Phoebe a kiss.
Phoebe sat back up, contemplating what her grandmother had said to her.
She was right.
Phoebe threw back the covers and got up, changed out of her pyjamas for the first time in two weeks and went downstairs. She was alone. She let out her breath in relief.
She could do some cleaning she thought. No, I hate cleaning, she decided, not doing that.
She looked out the front door window, hmmm.
She decided to put on some sneakers and go for a walk, maybe some air would clear her head.
She’d been thinking and pondering for so long she didn’t even realise she’d made it to downtown, she supposed she could look at some store fronts and do some window shopping.
She had just made it to a clothing store she particularly liked to visit when she bumped into a brunette woman making her way out the store, the young woman dropped her purse and the contents poured all over the sidewalk. Why does this always happen to me? Phoebe thought.
“I’m so sorry” she said to the woman as she looked her in the face, she looked kind of familiar, maybe she had seen her around before.
“It’s cool, don’t worry about it” The girl said as she picked up an assortment of items off the ground, some lipstick, some gum, a bottle of water and a lollipop.
“These will rot your teeth ya’know” Phoebe said as she handed the lollipop back over.
“Haha, you sound like my colleague at work” the girl chuckled.
“Well your colleague is right!” Phoebe exclaimed.
“Well, thanks for the help and everything” the girl said as she walked off.
Phoebe turned back round to look at her, there was something familiar about her that she just couldn’t shake. She shrugged to herself, no big deal, everything happens for a reason she thought as she made her way into the store.
“Phoebe, haven’t seen you in ages” squealed the clerk behind the counter, her name was Daisy and she loved to show Phoebe all the new collections.
“Yeah I’ve been out of town a while”.
“Are you ok?” she asked, “You look tired”.
“Aww I’m ok, just a long trip” Phoebe said.
“Anywhere nice?” Daisy asked.
“You could say it was pretty hot” Phoebe smiled to herself.
“Not as hot as you’re gonna be” Daisy snarled as she raised her hand and threw a fireball straight at Phoebe.
Phoebe ducked and rolled under a display of clothes on wire racks.
She couldn’t believe it, Daisy a demon? She had been coming here for years.
“I know you’re there witch, come out of hiding!” the demon yelled.
Ok then Phoebe thought as she rolled out the other side and kicked Daisy hard in the ankle.
She went down on the floor but let off a fireball, Phoebe levitated into the air to dodge it as it sailed past her and hit the ceiling. The smoke from the fireball set off the sprinkler system, oh great Phoebe thought as she landed back down soaking wet.
Daisy stood and let off another fireball, only for it to sizzle and vanish half way across the room in the water.
“Dammit!” Daisy shouted as she lunged at Phoebe, dragging her down on the floor, Phoebe levitated off the ground and propelled her elbow down into Daisy’s stomach making her scream in agony.
“Guess I’m not hot anymore” Phoebe said as she grabbed a hanger off the rack and bent it out of shape to use as a weapon.
“You’ll pay for this witch, she’d not gonna be too pleased with you!”
She? Phoebe wondered, did they have ANOTHER demon after them now besides The Source?
Phoebe didn’t waste any more time and ran to Daisy, regretfully plunging the sharp hanger into her neck.
No amount of sprinkler water could stop Daisy from exploding in a bright orange haze of fire.
Phoebe left the store, now soaking wet.
She made her way home, she had been hours. And now she needed a hot bath and her blankets back, socializing quota for the day fulfilled she thought as she walked back into the manor, only to find Prue and Piper waiting for her on the living room couch.
“There you are!” Prue said as she jumped up, looking worried.
“What’s wrong with your hair?” Piper asked “it looks like straw”.
“Well, if you must know I went for a walk and got attacked by a demon”.
“The Source?” Prue asked.
“Nope, a she demon, who also mentioned that another she demon might possibly be after us”.
“Great, like we don’t have enough problems” Piper said.
“Did she say anything else?” Prue checked.
“Nope”. Phoebe replied.
“Well me and Piper were also attacked by demons today” Prue continued.
“Damn, it’s a conspiracy” Phoebe said.
“Ok then, well you know who we need to call” Piper said knowledgeably.
“Ghostbusters?” Phoebe said.
“Cute” Prue giggled.
“No” Piper said hastily.
Almost as though they could read each other’s minds, they all looked up at the ceiling.
“Leo!”
Cole laughed, he had watched the whole thing, he knew she would fail, he told her so before she even tried.
“You really think you can stop them?” he asked The Seer as she turned to him, smiling.
“You are my prisoner, and you will speak when spoken too” she spat as she slapped him around the face.
It stung, but he’d faced worse.
“You’re way out of your league Seer, don’t forget I told you that before you embarked on your little suicide mission”.
“Oh Belthazor, you don’t know a thing, I have a plan that will wipe them all out, including you” she sneered as she turned away to seek the serenity of her visions.
“Soon, I will be the ultimate power in this universe”, “And all from the comfort of my own home” she laughed.
Cole looked around at the ground, perplexed, “You really think this is comfortable?”
End of Chapter Three, stay tuned for Chapter Four: “Operation: Rescue Cole”.
The sun had risen by the time Prue Halliwell woke up in the morning, she stifled a big yawn and drew back her curtains, allowing the golden rays to wash over her, almost energizing her for the day, who was she kidding? That was the coffee’s job.
She threw on some casual clothes, a black t-shirt and some jeans and headed downstairs, as usual she was the first one up, she walked outside to grab the morning paper and headed towards the kitchen, put the coffee pot on and put some bread in the toaster, she went to the refrigerator with the intention of getting some of Piper’s delicious homemade blackcurrant jam only to notice a half drunk bottle of wine on the bottom shelf, don’t need that anymore, she thought to herself proudly before proceeding to wiggle her finger and make the bottle zoom into the trashcan.
She grabbed the jam and carried on with her breakfast, checking all the latest news in the paper as she ate.
She heard some soft footsteps behind her, but it was only Kit, coming into the kitchen for her morning feed.
After Prue fed her and got all her equipment together she made her way to the car, she had a big shoot today for a bridal spread in her magazine, a local store had sponsored it and allowed them to use their dresses, Prue had looked them over last night and she had to admit they were beautiful, made her think of all she will probably miss out on, she hadn’t really been interested in finding someone since Andy had died, she had tried her best to stay in the game but she had finally come to the realization that she was just fine being on her own for now, if it happened, it happened.
She smiled as she got into the car thinking back to Piper’s wedding day, how it had all been a complete disaster what with her astral self running wild and getting arrested for murder, just another day at Halliwell manor she thought.
The shoot was in golden gate park, beautiful day for it she thought as she got out her car thirty minutes later ready for work.
She took her equipment out of the trunk and walked across the soft morning grass, heading down to the spot that she would be working in.
They’d chosen a really pretty area with some serene benches, colorful flowers and where you could see the bridge clearly in the background, shooting out into the sky like a stairway to heaven.
“Uhh, Miss Halliwell?”
Prue groaned, not again she thought as she reached the spot.
Her annoying intern was here already waiting for her, he seemed a nice enough guy, but he kept getting things very wrong.
“Oh, hi Chip”, she grinned widely.
Her boss had informed her early that week that the magazine she worked for, 415, had recently undertaken an internship program that would allow college students to get a part time job with them whilst doing their degree to get some hands on experience.
And Prue had been lumbered with Chip.
He was pretty to look at she supposed, all teeth and glossy slicked back dark hair, but way too young for her she thought.
“I have all the dresses lined up for you over here” he pointed to the left.
“And all the models this way” he pointed to the right.
“Sounds great Chip”, “Are they ready for me?” Prue asked.
“Sure, sure, they’re just waiting for you to set up so we can get started”.
“Ok, tell them I’ll be about 10 minutes, thanks Chip” she dismissed him so she could set up her camera equipment, recently she had been keen on advancing her skills at digital photography, since as with any other industry, if you don’t move with the times you get left behind.
Three hours later and Prue was on her lunch break, she sat alone on one of the nice benches when her phone started to ring.
She answered, “Hello”.
“Hey Prue, it’s me, Darryl” came an anxious voice.
“Darryl hi, it’s been a while since I saw you last”.
“Yeah, I’m sorry about that, it’s been a pretty hectic couple of months”
“Tell me about it” Prue rolled her eyes as she thought about all the stress she had been under recently.
“Sooooo I take it this isn’t a personal call?” she asked suspiciously.
“Well, no” Darryl answered.
“To be honest I’ve been trying to keep this away from you for as long as possible, but I don’t think it’s going to be possible anymore”.
“Keep what away Darryl? You’re making me nervous”.
“There’s an Inspector who has been wanting to get in touch with you for some time now, his name is Cortez”.
“Get in touch with me, about what?” Prue asked, curious.
“A well-known, well respected doctor died at the manor Prue, and he wants answers”.
Prue remembered Dr Griffiths, an innocent that they had lost a few months ago thanks to The Source’s assassin, Shax, who they still needed to pay back for what he had done, she added it to her mental to do list.
“Ok, so what? He wants an interview?”
“Maybe that and more, just listen out for his phone call ok?”
“Sure, and Darryl, thanks for the heads up”.
“No problem, talk to you soon Prue”.
They hung up and Prue carried on with her lunch, her favorite, a no mayo turkey sandwich.
As she ate she thought about what Darryl had said, about someone being suspicious about a lost innocent, it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened but it didn’t stop her from worrying, dig deep enough and eventually you’ll find something, she made another note on her to do list, human proof the manor, i.e. somehow hide all the magical items they had. Then again they could always just have Piper freeze him if he found something, thinking about that reminded her of when Andy was searching the manor for a lost tiara, Piper had to keep freezing him whilst Phoebe hid it somewhere else, all thanks to Rex and Hannah, who Prue did not feel much hatred towards now after they had sacrificed themselves to help the sisters save Phoebe, I hope they’re somewhere nice now she thought as she finished her lunch and picked up her bag, she had some equipment to drop off in the car before she resumed the shoot.
As she made her way across the park and under some trees she felt a presence behind her, she turned and came almost face to face with Chip.
“You forgot something, witch” he snarled as he threw an energy ball at her chest.
Prue went sailing through the air and landed in a crumpled heap at the base of a tree.
“I knew you were too useless to be human!” Prue yelled as she stood.
Chip threw another energy ball, but this time Prue was ready, she raised her hand and deflected it, sending it back the way it came, but Chip dodged it at the last minute.
Prue was surprised, he had looked like someone out of The Matrix evading that attack.
Time to get physical, she thought as she astral projected right in front of Chip, raising her arm to punch him around the face, but he caught her fist, twisted her arm and kicked her in the stomach knocking her back down. She wasn’t going down that easily, she stood and flipped over him, kicking him in the back of the legs as she landed, he fell hard and she kicked him in the stomach. Knocking the breath out of him.
“Since my sister was kidnapped, I always carry one of these” Prue yelled as she produced an athame and bought it home into Chip’s chest, he screamed as his body set alight and fell to ash, leaving a small patch of charred grass in its wake.
Prue didn’t know where she’d be without her fighting skills, she had survived without them but it wasn’t until she had been cursed with the empath power last year that she had somehow hacked into Vinceres’ and Phoebe’s emotions and copied their fighting skills, she still had no idea how that worked but she wasn’t going to complain, they certainly had their uses.
What a strange demon Prue thought, he had fake college documents, gotten into an internship and somehow made his way to her, she hadn’t really encountered demons with espionage as a main skill before, seemed like an awful lot of trouble, demons were usually less subtle.
She’d ask Leo about it later she decided as she went to carry on with her photoshoot. Luckily she managed to digitally edit the charred grass to look alive.
Piper got out the shower and made her way back to her bedroom to get ready for the day, she loved the shower, she always felt like her troubles were sliding off her with the water running down into the plughole.
She wished Leo was here, but he’d had to orb off somewhere last night to help one of his charges, she had to kind of admit, she hated her husband’s job, he could be gone for days at a time and he wasn’t even paid for it, she realized he was doing good work, great work in fact, but it didn’t change the fact that she missed him.
She dried and put some clothes on, a black long sleeved shirt with a pair of brown leather pants, she looked pretty good she thought as she made her way downstairs, she saw that Prue had left the paper on the counter with the ready-made coffee, God bless older sisters Piper thought as she poured herself a cup. She turned to the food and culture section of the paper, she always liked to see if there were any new recipes she could use for her cooking.
For all the stress it gave her she actually missed her job at Quake, the restaurant she had managed for a while, at least she got to be close to food there but whilst she loved P3, it was just a club, and she didn’t get to fulfil her dream of being a professional chef.
One day she thought, one day. When The Source was finally gone and they could go back to having semi-normal lives. She didn’t ever want to stop being a witch, helping people was in her blood, but she’d definitely like to open her own place one day.
She shook herself out of the fantasy and made herself a muffin to go. She was already running late and she needed to set up P3 for a cool gig tonight, a bunch of local bands were coming to play to raise money for charity, it not only was a good cause but made her club look good as well.
Just as she was about to reach the front door Leo orbed down in front of her smiling like a Cheshire cat.
“Hey there wife” he said.
Piper smiled, “hey there husband”.
She drew him into a hug and pulled him out the door with her.
“Where we going?” he asked.
“Gotta get to P3 to set up” Piper said hurriedly as she threw her bag onto the back seat.
They had been driving for about ten minutes when Leo piped up, “How’s Phoebe doing?”
Piper sighed, it was a sore subject, Phoebe hadn’t been doing great.
“She’s getting there, I think, yesterday she actually came down to the kitchen to get a sandwich all by herself”.
“Ahh”, Leo said, nodding his head.
“Progress” he stated.
“Yep, sort of” Piper grimaced.
“So yesterday I met with a charge, because they needed my help, it was two witches who had just had a baby with the power to go invisible” he said.
“Wow, must be hard work” Piper said.
“Well it made me think that when we have kids, we should bind their powers”.
Piper smashed down on the break in the middle of the road.
“What?!” she yelled.
Leo shrank back, suddenly wary of the subject.
Piper calmed herself down and said in her deadliest, quietest voice.
“No way, not gonna happen”.
“I think, we should discuss this” Leo said.
“There’s nothing to discuss, magic is a gift Leo, imagine how much more prepared we’d be right now if we’d had our powers since birth”.
“The difference being that our child will be raised around three witches who have their powers, and can teach the child”.
“What exactly will we be teaching it if it hasn’t got any powers?” Piper questioned.
“Because you can teach it without the fear of it orbing out to Thailand every time you scold them” Leo insisted.
“End of discussion Leo, not gonna happen”.
“Ok, well what about this? Say our kid inherits Phoebe’s power of premonition, and grows up having visions every day of people dying and disaster, and since they’re a child they won’t be able to do anything about it because they’ll be stuck in school” Leo raised his eyebrows. He knew he had gotten the upper hand.
“I see your point Leo, I really do, but why are we even talking about this? We aren’t even trying yet, were no one where near that, and I agree with you, if the baby has premonitions then we will find some way to stop them until they’re older, happy?”
Leo nodded and sighed, he hadn’t meant the debate to get so heated.
“I gotta go” he said and orbed out the car just as Piper reached P3.
Piper hung her head, she hated arguing with Leo, especially about this topic, they hadn’t even really discussed kids yet, they both knew one was coming at some point thanks to going to the future and meeting her, but she could come along at any time. And probably not any time soon if the way things were going were the way they were going to stay.
She entered the club and walked down the stairs to see that the club had pretty much all been set up already, thank the heavens for her new assistant manager Wally. He had been a God send thought Piper. He had been so helpful since Phoebe had gone missing, essentially running the place for her. She owed that guy a raise for sure.
She went to the locker room to put her stuff away, she opened the door and an energy ball came hurtling out the room and into her face, knocking her backwards and into the bar.
“What the hell?” Piper murmured to herself as she got up.
She looked into the locker room, it was Wally. Bright red hair and freckles. He had been such a great help over the last few weeks, and he was a demon.
Of course Piper thought as she dusted off her hands.
“I really have to hand it you Piper, you really are a schmuck” he smiled.
“You work for The Source?” he asked, slowly making her way to him.
“Something like that” he answered.
“I didn’t think it would be so easy to get this close to a Charmed One, but you’re all so gullible I don’t even know why I was worried” he sneered.
“You think you know so much?” she asked.
“You’re wrong” she stated as she threw up her hands, Wally had frozen.
She had been meaning to blow him up but her power was so unpredictable these days, she concentrated hard, her trigger for freezing was usually fear, so what did she feel when blowing things up? She thought for a while, when she blew up the banshee she had been stressed, and when she blew up the door that led to the furies she had been feeling the same thing, well, she had had no shortage of the stress feeling lately, she concentrated and channelled that emotion into her being and threw up her hands, nothing happened for about five seconds but then Wally unfroze, started bulging and then blew up into flames.
She had done it, she gave herself a little cheer, she had finally learnt the trigger to her exploding power.
Such a shame though, she thought, now she had to find a new assistant manager.
Phoebe was in bed, she had been there a lot lately, the comfy pillows, the security of a blanket, so much nicer than a hard cage floor, her back was still sore from the amount of time she’d spent in it.
Not that she was a psychology expert or anything, but she thought maybe she was suffering some kind of PTSD, at least that’s what Prue had suggested the other day, that she go and see someone about what had happened. The conversation hadn’t gone well.
She sighed as she thought back to it.
“What am I supposed to do Prue? Tell the doctor I was trapped in a cage for two months whilst being tortured by The Source of all Evil?” she’d yelled as Prue walked away with tears in her eyes.
She was only trying to help, Phoebe knew that, but she wasn’t one to admit when she desperately needed saving. Damsel in distress she wasn’t, though a point could be argued that recently, she was.
More than anything she missed Cole, her sisters had told her that he had a part to play in saving her but they hadn’t seen him since, so he was probably dead, or captured.
She knew she should be up and about and seeing what she could do about that but she felt so lethargic, like she just couldn’t muster up any energy.
She’d also been having more nightmares, if she was honest that was the real reason she’d been keeping herself to herself, The Source had done something to her, something to make her almost fearful of her sisters, even though they had risked everything to save her, she felt so guilty and ashamed.
“What do I do with myself” she wondered aloud.
“You get up off that behind and find yourself some action” a voice echoed around her room.
Phoebe sat up bolt right, “huh?” she said aloud.
A mass of white orbs gathered in the centre of her room, clustering together to form a familiar figure, Grams.
“Not the best time Grams, I have self-pitying and sleeping to do”.
“Yes I’ve been watching, me and your mother have been extremely worried about you my darling, but its time you got back on the horse”.
“Grams, I don’t really wanna talk about sex with you, no offence but I have a boyfriend, had”.
“I’m not talking about sex silly, I mean any kind of action! Some demon fighting, saving an innocent, like the good old days”.
“Oh, the good old days of almost three months ago you mean?” Phoebe questioned sarcastically.
“Phoebe” Grams said in that gentle voice, “you need to get back out there, find yourself again”.
“You’ll never live if you don’t”.
“But I don’t know how, I can’t face Prue or Piper, I feel guilty enough as it is.”
“Guilty over what?” Grams said, concerned.
“It’s nothing, I’m fine” Phoebe slumped back down.
“We both know you’re not sweetheart, don’t lie to yourself, but don’t let it control you, don’t let HIM control you”.
“Good luck” she faded away as she blew Phoebe a kiss.
Phoebe sat back up, contemplating what her grandmother had said to her.
She was right.
Phoebe threw back the covers and got up, changed out of her pyjamas for the first time in two weeks and went downstairs. She was alone. She let out her breath in relief.
She could do some cleaning she thought. No, I hate cleaning, she decided, not doing that.
She looked out the front door window, hmmm.
She decided to put on some sneakers and go for a walk, maybe some air would clear her head.
She’d been thinking and pondering for so long she didn’t even realise she’d made it to downtown, she supposed she could look at some store fronts and do some window shopping.
She had just made it to a clothing store she particularly liked to visit when she bumped into a brunette woman making her way out the store, the young woman dropped her purse and the contents poured all over the sidewalk. Why does this always happen to me? Phoebe thought.
“I’m so sorry” she said to the woman as she looked her in the face, she looked kind of familiar, maybe she had seen her around before.
“It’s cool, don’t worry about it” The girl said as she picked up an assortment of items off the ground, some lipstick, some gum, a bottle of water and a lollipop.
“These will rot your teeth ya’know” Phoebe said as she handed the lollipop back over.
“Haha, you sound like my colleague at work” the girl chuckled.
“Well your colleague is right!” Phoebe exclaimed.
“Well, thanks for the help and everything” the girl said as she walked off.
Phoebe turned back round to look at her, there was something familiar about her that she just couldn’t shake. She shrugged to herself, no big deal, everything happens for a reason she thought as she made her way into the store.
“Phoebe, haven’t seen you in ages” squealed the clerk behind the counter, her name was Daisy and she loved to show Phoebe all the new collections.
“Yeah I’ve been out of town a while”.
“Are you ok?” she asked, “You look tired”.
“Aww I’m ok, just a long trip” Phoebe said.
“Anywhere nice?” Daisy asked.
“You could say it was pretty hot” Phoebe smiled to herself.
“Not as hot as you’re gonna be” Daisy snarled as she raised her hand and threw a fireball straight at Phoebe.
Phoebe ducked and rolled under a display of clothes on wire racks.
She couldn’t believe it, Daisy a demon? She had been coming here for years.
“I know you’re there witch, come out of hiding!” the demon yelled.
Ok then Phoebe thought as she rolled out the other side and kicked Daisy hard in the ankle.
She went down on the floor but let off a fireball, Phoebe levitated into the air to dodge it as it sailed past her and hit the ceiling. The smoke from the fireball set off the sprinkler system, oh great Phoebe thought as she landed back down soaking wet.
Daisy stood and let off another fireball, only for it to sizzle and vanish half way across the room in the water.
“Dammit!” Daisy shouted as she lunged at Phoebe, dragging her down on the floor, Phoebe levitated off the ground and propelled her elbow down into Daisy’s stomach making her scream in agony.
“Guess I’m not hot anymore” Phoebe said as she grabbed a hanger off the rack and bent it out of shape to use as a weapon.
“You’ll pay for this witch, she’d not gonna be too pleased with you!”
She? Phoebe wondered, did they have ANOTHER demon after them now besides The Source?
Phoebe didn’t waste any more time and ran to Daisy, regretfully plunging the sharp hanger into her neck.
No amount of sprinkler water could stop Daisy from exploding in a bright orange haze of fire.
Phoebe left the store, now soaking wet.
She made her way home, she had been hours. And now she needed a hot bath and her blankets back, socializing quota for the day fulfilled she thought as she walked back into the manor, only to find Prue and Piper waiting for her on the living room couch.
“There you are!” Prue said as she jumped up, looking worried.
“What’s wrong with your hair?” Piper asked “it looks like straw”.
“Well, if you must know I went for a walk and got attacked by a demon”.
“The Source?” Prue asked.
“Nope, a she demon, who also mentioned that another she demon might possibly be after us”.
“Great, like we don’t have enough problems” Piper said.
“Did she say anything else?” Prue checked.
“Nope”. Phoebe replied.
“Well me and Piper were also attacked by demons today” Prue continued.
“Damn, it’s a conspiracy” Phoebe said.
“Ok then, well you know who we need to call” Piper said knowledgeably.
“Ghostbusters?” Phoebe said.
“Cute” Prue giggled.
“No” Piper said hastily.
Almost as though they could read each other’s minds, they all looked up at the ceiling.
“Leo!”
Cole laughed, he had watched the whole thing, he knew she would fail, he told her so before she even tried.
“You really think you can stop them?” he asked The Seer as she turned to him, smiling.
“You are my prisoner, and you will speak when spoken too” she spat as she slapped him around the face.
It stung, but he’d faced worse.
“You’re way out of your league Seer, don’t forget I told you that before you embarked on your little suicide mission”.
“Oh Belthazor, you don’t know a thing, I have a plan that will wipe them all out, including you” she sneered as she turned away to seek the serenity of her visions.
“Soon, I will be the ultimate power in this universe”, “And all from the comfort of my own home” she laughed.
Cole looked around at the ground, perplexed, “You really think this is comfortable?”
End of Chapter Three, stay tuned for Chapter Four: “Operation: Rescue Cole”.
