"Charmed in the City" Series Rewrite

[Patrick]

A short-story modern rewrite of the Charmed series, inspired by an idea I had from the ending of one of my other Charmed fictions. This re imagines Charmed from a different perspective as well as gives it a fresher flavor that I like. Comparably, it's Sex and the City meets Sabrina, the Teenage Witch meets Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Hope you all enjoy it.

Charmed in the City




Plot:
Phoebe Bennett has always been a witch. She's lived with her father in Brooklyn, New York her whole life, but it's not until she moves into her own apartment that she becomes the Charmed One, the world's savior. There is only one Charmed One born into every generation, a witch chosen to receive all the powers of witches past on her twenty-first birthday. She is destined to battle evil beings and now Phoebe has to discover her new powers as a Charmed One whilst dealing with life in the city as a columnist alongside her quirky friends and family members: her mortal and magic-reluctant father, Victor; her roommate, an over-bearing aspiring model with control issues named Hiza; Rodney, a gay gypsy bartender; Mason, the friendly and helpful single bachelor who lives in the same building as her; and last but not least, her Grams and sisters who come to visit Phoebe in New York on occasion just to shake things up if they should pop up for a visit.

Main & Recurring Characters:

Phoebe Bennett	Victor Bennett	Hiza Neeman	Rodney St. Claire
Mason Davies	Penelope "Grams" Halliwell	Prudence Halliwell	Piper Halliwell

[Patrick]

Episode 1

"Home Sweep Home"

Phoebe and Hiza move into their new apartment on the east side of Brooklyn but everything isn't as it seems. The tenants are acting strange, the plumbing and electric are always on the fritz, and the place seems to have a mind of it's own. Can Phoebe figure out who or what is causing the mischief before the entire complex loses their minds?

---

Phoebe lounged on the bright yellow couch in their apartment watching the Wendy Williams Show holding a giant bowl of cheese puffs. She grabs three puffs at a time and stuffs them in her mouth before laughing at something funny that Wendy had said. She shakes her head, "That darn Wendy." Reaching into the bowl, she grabs a couple more cheese puffs and puts them in her mouth when her roommate, Hiza, storms in from the bathroom with her hair tangled and wet. Phoebe froze, hand on mouth, cheese puffs still in tact.

She bit into them and swallowed. "What the hell happened to you?" Phoebe laughed. "You look ridiculous."

"It's sooo not funny," Hiza remarked, rolling her eyes and storming over towards the kitchen counter to grab her phone from the charger. "The power went out again while I was blow-drying my hair and I have a go-see across town in half an hour! I'm calling the landlord."

Phoebe snorted, returning her attention back to the TV screen. "Good luck with that one. I already left two messages about the dryer down in the laundry room. It's still making that weird noise and getting my clothes wet."

"I swear it's like this place is haunted," Hiza dialed the landlord's number into her phone and listened to it ring. "We should get our security deposit back for this. No one can live in these conditions."

"Tell me about it. I had to use that old clothesline in the basement to dry my stuff. Now it's going to smell dank."

"Oh. Is that what that string is for down there?" Hiza asked with her cell phone still to her ear. She finally got the voicemail. "Ugh! Voicemail again! And the mailbox is full so I can't even leave a freakin' message." She ended the call and slammed her phone down on the counter. "I. Just. Can. Not. Today."

At that moment, her phone started sparking and crackling.

"What was that?" Phoebe heard the crackling noise and turned her heard towards the kitchen to see sparks shooting out from Hiza's phone. "Oh my god, Hiza, watch out!"

Hiza screamed and ran away from the counter just as her phone started emitting sparks like a Fourth of July display before sizzling out, leaving behind nothing but the charred device and a large scorch on the counter around it.

"My phone! It wasn't even on the charger. What the heck?"

"How you dewwwwinnn'!?" Wendy William's voice floated over from the TV as if to mock the moment.

Hiza turns to it. "You've got to be kidding me! The TV is still on!? Why does the power only go out in the bathroom when I'm getting ready? And now my phone!"

"You know," Phoebe said, "You might be right about that haunted thing."


*


After a frantic Hiza left for her model go-see, Phoebe went down the basement to get her clothes that were drying up on the line. She entered the laundry room with her blue basket and set it on top the broken dryer. Her clothes weren't the only ones hanging up anymore. Mrs. Adams, the sweet old lady down the hall -widowed and lived alone, the poor thing- was in the process of hanging up her bathrobes and pajama bottoms to dry.

"Good morning, Mrs. Adams," Phoebe greeted with a bright smile.

Mrs. Adams didn't even react. The woman finally looked up with a dazed expression. "Oh. Hi, dear," she said it dryly. It wasn't like Mrs. Adams at all.

"Are you feeling alright?" Phoebe asked, beginning to take down, fold, and place her own clothes into her basket.

"No," she responded slowly. "Haven't been getting any sleep."

Phoebe cocked her head. "Really? Why not?"

Mrs. Adams shrugged. "I can't sleep because my apartment....won't sleep."

This statement scared Phoebe. However, before she could inquire any further, the old woman finished hanging up her last garment and left the room in a tired shuffle.

Phoebe finished her laundry in silence and made her way back up to the apartment. On her way up, she passed maybe three other building tenants. They all had bags under their eyes and shifty looks. One man who Phoebe did not get the chance to introduce herself to yet, was actually banging his head outside of his own door in a repeated fashion, resembling a human metronome. Phoebe had the urge to ask if he was alright, but she knew it was only one way she could help these people.


*

With Hiza still out of the house, Phoebe had some alone time to get out her family's Book of Shadows, which she inherited after becoming the Charmed One. Her sisters thought it completely unfair seeing as they always thought of themselves as the better and more successful witches of the family, but ultimately, Grams gave the book to Phoebs in the end seeing as she would need it the most.

"Apartment won't sleep. Apartment won't sleep," Phoebe repeated to herself as she flipped through the pages while sitting on her bed with her bedroom door closed. "I remember seeing something in here- Aha!" She found the page she had come across so many times whilst flipping through the book whenever she visited her sisters and Grams in their California manor.

She read aloud, "Be careful of dwellings for they harness the spirit of the one whom holds ownership. Sudden and unpredictable harm should come to those within a neglected dwelling should the owner allow the neglect to build over years, manifesting into the sucking of life to those within. The dwelling will not rest until all inhabitants are devoid of life. Wow, morbid much?"

Phoebe stopped reading and looked around her apartment. "This just got Girl With The Yellow Wallpaper real fast." She continued reading.

"To reverse the effects of a life-sucking dwelling, simply sweep a besom from east to west in the four most corners of the property."

"Easy, peasy," Phoebe closed the book and hopped up to get ready to cleanse her new apartment complex.


*

"Daddy!" Phoebe said as she bounced into his arms the moment she opened her apartment door to let him in.

"Whoa! Hey there, honey," Victor said before pushing out his hand to give her a small old besom. It was had a short handle and was made of twigs tied together with cords. "Here's the broom you wanted me to bring over. You know," he walked more into the apartment. "You've got a lot of room in this place. I don't know why you have to store all your witchy things back at my place."

Phoebe closed her apartment door and proceeded towards the kitchen area, placing the besom lightly on the counter. "I told you, I can't let Hiza find out that I'm a witch."

"Yeah, but if she sees a bunch of crystals and new age stuff laying around, the worse she'll think is you're a nut who bathes in oils and likes to have sage parties."

Phoebe reached for a coffee mug to fix her dad a cup, their usual ritual whenever he came over. "Actually, a few several drops of lavender oil in your bath can do wonders for your skin and calms the nerves."

Victor nodded and smiled. "I'll take your word for it. So, when exactly are you planning on telling her?"

"That I'm a witch?" Phoebe laughed. "I can't do that. The information alone would blow her head up. She may be just another model struggling to make it in New York but that girl is wound tighter than a cymbal-bearing toy monkey.

"I don't know, honey. I think you should give her a chance. Keeping a secret in your own home can eventually drive you crazy."

"You have no idea," Phoebe said, realizing that using the microwave, stove, or coffee maker probably wasn't such a good idea with the complex attacking back. "On second thought, how about we go out for coffee. I just have to finish up here." She grabbed the besom off of the counter.

"Okay," Victor kissed his daughter on the forehead and started towards the door. "I'll be outside, waiting. Good luck with the, err, sweeping."


*

Phoebe stood in her apartment and slowly swept the besom from east to west in a fluid motion, not even touching the twigs to the floor.

Nothing happened.

"Come on." She tried again, and again. "Maybe I'm doing it wron-"

The besom then glowed and sparked with energy, as if fighting the energy of the complex. "Ooh."

She swept from east to west again, another spark, like scraping away the top layer of a grime and dust. "And we're off."

She swept for about two minutes in four different areas of the complex. The last area was the lobby, of course.

Besom in hand, she merrily swept whilst humming a little tune and dancing slightly. She didn't hear Mason walk up behind her.

"Phoebe?"

Phoebe turned in surprise, immediately ending her humming and swinging hips. "Mason!" She replied, surprisingly. "I....totally didn't see you there, how embarrassing." She laughed, cheeks turning red.

Mason smiled, lopsided with perfect white teeth. His small dark brown mustache moving with the curve of his upper lip. Damn, he was handsome. It was all Phoebe could do not to swoon right then and there. "It's alright," he assured her. "I sometimes dance in the shower and pretend I'm on American Idol so..."

She laughed, trying to get the smoldering image of Mason in the shower out her head so she could think straight. She just then noticed the leash in his hand. "Oh. You have a dog?"

"I did. It's been a rough couple of weeks and so I gave my dog away after being hit by a random wave of depression. But I suddenly feel better now after just having a bowl of soup. So, I'm going to go beg for my dog back. Wish me luck."

"Good luck," Phoebe said as he exit the complex. When he was gone, Phoebe made a face, sorry that her cute neighbor had to give up his dog because of a magical side effect. But then she smiled in the next moment, for the sweeping must have worked. She would let him the bowl of soup lifted his depression, and not her Wiccan sweep job.

She continued sweeping for a few more minutes before finally coming out and getting into her dad's car, placing the besom in the backseat.

"You take care of everything you need to?" Victor asked before pulling off for their father-daughter coffee date.

"Oh yeah," Phoebe said, putting on her seatbelt and looking out of the window up at the Brooklyn brownstone apartment complex building as they drove away. "Everything is going to be A-okay now. I'll just have to have a little talk with my landlord some time in the future...or maybe cast some kind of spell on him so that he doesn't negl-"

"Phoebe," Victor warned. "You promised when you moved out that you wouldn't go around cursing random people. Especially since you became a charm gal and all. You might end up and accidentally blow someone up."

Phoebe laughed and slapped her dad's arm. "It's 'Charmed One', dad. But you're right. Luckily, all I had to do today was a little house cleaning. But next time, whatever the challenge may be, I'll be ready for it. Whatever it is."

"That's my girl," Victor nudged her as the two laughed and drove through the streets of Brooklyn to their favorite coffee spot.

"Dad," Phoebe said. "You're the best."

Victor smiled and said back, "I love you, too, honey. Warts and all."

Phoebe smiled warmly. Living alone wasn't so scary for her anymore. Things were looking up a lot more knowing that she could still count on her father. Maybe being charmed wouldn't be so bad after all. Only time would tell.


....The end.

[Patrick]

Episode 2

"The Demon That Got Away"

Phoebe develops a new Charmed power just as she encounters the very demon that once killed her mother. Meanwhile, Rodney finds out about Phoebe's magical status and opens up to her about his own.

---

Phoebe and Hiza were enjoying drinks at the bar of their favorite spot in town, a dance and hookah club called Smok. Rodney was serving them their third round of drinks.

Hiza laughed, and snorted afterward whilst holding the liquor from spilling out of her nose. "Oh my GAWD, that's so hilarious! Rodney, what did you say to him after that!?"

Rodney smiled, threw his bar-wiping towel over his shoulder, and leaned closer to the girls. "I told him if he didn't want his ten-year old daughter to find out about his extra-curricular dress-up activities, that he better call me a cab home ASAP! And that was the last time I ever heard from Pantyhose Peter."

Phoebe and Hiza burst into a fit of giggles at their friend's tale just as a pair of tall beautiful women approached the bar to pay for their tab.

"Excuse us!" One of the women, a bony blonde, snapped at Hiza as she gave Rodney her credit card.

Hiza scoffed before placing her drink down at the bar. "No. Excu-use YOU," she slurred.

"Hiza, don't," Phoebe warned getting up to stop her friend. However, as she reached to settle her friend, her arm brushed against the bony blonde's hair and she was sucked into a premonition.

The bony blonde is in the back alley of Smok, it's starting to rain. She looks up and curses to herself. She walks over a large puddle and is attacked by it, as it rises up and engulfs her, drowning her.


Phoebe gasped for air as her mind returned to the room. The blaring, pumping music and vibrating bass of the club made for the perfect sensations to ground her from the awful vision.

"What's wro-ong?" Hiza asked, hiccuping. "You having another one of your migraines?"

"No," Phoebe said, looking up to see the two women gone. "I mean, yes. I need-" she gazed around the room just in time to see the two girls saying goodbye to eachother as they were exiting. The bony blonde taking the back exit of the club instead. "Oh! I need some air. Now!"

Hiza swiveled around to follow her friend. "Well, wait for-"

"NO!" Phoebe told Hiza to stay. "Umm, save our seats. I'll just be a minute."

"Okay," Hiza shrugged. "But you don't -hiccup- have to be so major about it."


*

Outside the club, Phoebe burst from the doors, looking both ways. The alleyway split into a fork and Phoebe had no idea of knowing which direction the blonde went. The ground was dry. "Atleast it's not-" Just as she said it, heavy rain started to fall. "Raining. Oh man." She started in a sprint.

At the alley fork, Phoebe heard a curse word being uttered somewhere from her right. She turned right and ran around the corner just in time to see the bony blonde being consumed by the large living water puddle. She was too late.

"Noooo!" Phoebe yelled, her arm outstretched, wanting desperately to save the woman. She felt a warm tingle crawl up her spine then emit from her hand, sending a magnetic energy towards the bony blonde.

The water around the woman seemed to separate and fall back towards the ground where it solidified into a man!

The man looked at his hands and body incredulously while crawling away from the witch and his prey. "Wh-wh- what did you do to me?" He even seemed surprised to hear the sound of his own voice. His hand shot up to his throat as if to see if he had one.

As Phoebe ran to see if the woman was alright, the man got up and ran away.

"Are you okay?" Phoebe asked the bony blonde.

The blonde was coughing up water, barely seconds away from drowning. "I- I think so. Wh- What was that?"

Phoebe glared in the direction in which the man disappeared. "I don't know. But I'm going to find out, that's for sure."


*


The next morning, Phoebe was in her apartment watching the news and sipping coffee. She had a notebook out with scribbles and information she had gotten from a quick phone call to her Grams in California. Apparently, the demon she faced last night was a water demon and the same demon that killed her mother when she was too young to remember. It was the reason that Victor had taken Phoebe and moved to New York in the first place. However, Grams had no answers as to what Phoebe did to the demon by turning it into a man.

The doorbell rang, well, more like annoyingly buzzed, and Phoebe got up to see that it was Rodney down below in the lobby. She buzzed him up.

"What brings you here?" Phoebe asked, the moment she let Rodney into the apartment. "Wait. How did you know where we lived?"

He gave her a knowing look, barely able to hold in his enormous grin. "Hiza told me. I asked her last night after you ran out. Where is she, anyway?" He waited.

"And?" Phoebe asked, taking the bait. "Is there a particular reason or are you just here for a morning coffee and bagel breakfast date? And she's at some two day model retreat, whatever that is."

Rodney shrugged, "Coffee actually doesn't sound too bad. But no, I know you're a witch, Phoebe! It just came to me last night. I had no idea this entire time."

Phoebe's eyes bulged. "What!? How? Wait. No."

Laughing at her befuddlement, Rodney continued. "Relax. I'm here to help. Is this where you keep your mugs?" Rodney walked over to the small adjoined kitchen area and started looking through cabinets.

Phoebe was too shocked to protest. Finally, she found her words. "Okay. You, spill, now."


*


A whopping thirty minutes later, Phoebe and Rodney sat in her living room, sipping coffee, chewing bagels, and trading war stories of their magical families.

"Wait, so you don't have a whitelighter?" Rodney asked. "But you just became the Charmed One. Maybe they just haven't made themselves known to you yet. They do that. Watch you you're whole life, and then pop up out of nowhere as an electrician or bus driver or boss."

Phoebe shrugged. "I don't know about all that stuff. My dad doesn't like to talk about magic, like, at all. So, you can see things too?"

"Must suck," Rodney said, dipping his bagel into his coffee and taking a bite. "But yeah, I can only see through reflective surfaces though. You know, water, crystals, mirrors. Last night, I seen you solidify that demon while cleaning out a bar glass."

"Wait," Phoebe said. "Solidify?"

Rodney nodded. "Yeah. It's something only powerful beings can do, but being the Charmed One, I guess that means you can do it too now."

"What exactly is it?"

Rodney shook his head. "Man, you really don't know jack about magic do you? Remind me to bonk your dad over the head next time I see him."

Phoebe snorted. "Yeah, my grams feels the same way. Wishes I'd been prepared my whole life for this. But, I don't know, I like how I grew up. Girl in the city. I got a nice job as a columnist for the NY Gazette. Friends. I wouldn't have had all of that if I grew up brewing potions and riding brooms."


"It's not all that bad," Rodney said. "I mean, I grew up with my gypsy folk, and I turned out perfectly normal!" He beamed.

Phoebe snorted again. "Yeah, okay. Say "Hi" to Pantyhose Peter next time you see him, will ya Mr. Normal. But enough stalling, tell me more about this solidify thing I did."

Rodney took a sip of his coffee. "Right. Well, you know when a whitelighter orbs, or when a ghost wisps away?"

Phoebe stared at him blankly.

He continued. "Some people can take those orbs and turn them back into the whitelighter, or take that wispy smoke and turn it back into the form it used to be."

"So the man I saw last night...." Phoebe mused aloud.

"Was the true form of that demon, or rather, his first form before he became the watery monster that he was," Rodney finished.

"Grams said that they could never kill it," Phoebe said, getting shivers. "How can you? How can you defeat water?"

"Well, it's solid now," Rodney said. "Maybe you can finally get the bastard for taking your mom away."

"Time to scry," Phoebe said with finality, getting up.

"Whoa, whoa, wait." Rodney also stood, placing his coffee and bagel on the table. "You can't just go after this guy like that. Plus you have nothing of his to scry with."

Phoebe went to the fridge and took out one of Hiza's Fiji water bottles. "He's a water demon. We'll just use water to scry for him." She walked back over and placed the bottle on the table, getting a folded up map of New York from under it and spreading it out. "And Rodney, I'm the Charmed One. Don't ever tell me what to do. This demon killed my mother. So I have to kill it. End of discussion. Now, help me with this map."

Rodney sighed and nodded. "Okay, so we're really doing this." He bent down and help spread the map.

"You bet your sweet pantyhose we are. I just hope we get to him in time before he hurts someone else."


*


"He would come here. A freakin' lake! What the hell did you talk me into Phoebe?"

Phoebe sighed at her friend's reluctance. Usually, she loved Rodney's light personality, but right now, she was on a mission. "Just keep your eyes peeled. You saw what he looked like, right?"

Rodney shook his head. "Not really. Just what happened. The faces weren't important."

"Weren't important?" Phoebe asked.

"Hey, don't ask me. I don't get super powerful visions like you, okay. They're more like impressions. More information-based, less vivid and less sensory."

Phoebe made a mental note of that. "Wow, if we put our powers together, we can probably-"

She was cut off by Rodney. "Over there! That's him! I know it."

Phoebe looked to where he was pointing. The water demon/man was on the pier, holding some woman's hand, drawing her closer to the water.

"He's going to kill her!" Phoebe noticed, as she ran towards the pier. Rodney ran after her.


"Wait!" Phoebe yelled, approaching the pier. "Stop! Get away from him!"

The woman turned around, confused at Phoebe's warnings. She looked to the water demon for answers but was answered by a sinister glare. The demon pushed the woman into the water. She screamed as her body hit the lake, going under.

"Rodney!" Phoebe panicked. "Save her."

"I got her," Rodney sprinted towards the water and ran in, diving under to save the woman. Meanwhile, Phoebe ran towards the man, stopping a good distance from him. Both of them on the pier. It was a showdown.

"You know," the water demon said. "I have you to thank for this new form. Makes drawing in my victims much more easier."

"Shut up!" Phoebe spat. "You won't get away with killing her."

The demon looked down to the flailing Rodney in the lake, he was in the process of rescuing the woman.

"Not HER!" Pheobe spat again. "My mother."

"Aah," the water demon nodded. "I know who you're talking about.....you smell like her." He sniffed the air. "The brunette witch of summer '98."

"SHUT UP!" Phoebe yelled. She hated the way this man talked about her mother's death as if it were some fond memory in his collection of kills.

"Or what?" The demon said. "You'll premonition me to death? That's right. I know exactly who you are, now that you've revealed yourself to me. This....will be fun."

And with that, the demon smiled before turning and jumping into the water, disappearing.

"No!" Phoebe ran forward and looked below the water's surface. Nothing. No bubbles, ripples or any signs that a man had just jumped in the water.

Rodney finally surfaced with the woman, paddling her to shore. Phoebe joined them finally.

"Is she alright?" Phoebe asked.

"Yeah," Rodney said inbetween breaths. "Still breathing anyway. I'll call 9-1-1. Can I see your phone? Mines got wet."

Phoebe handed him her cell phone blankly.

"What's wrong? Where is he?" Rodney asked, dialing the number in her phone, while re-checking the woman's pulse and beginning to do CPR.

"He's gone," she turned to look at the lake. "But I have a feeling that he'll be back."



*


"So, did you ever save that woman?" Hiza asked two days later. Her and Phoebe were at Smok, sitting at their usual spot at the bar again.

"We did. The paramedics got there in time and everything," Phoebe recalled. "How was the retreat?"

Hiza waved it off. "Nothing special. "Just a waste of time if you don't know how to network right."

"And did you network?" Phoebe asked.

Hiza waited a second before replying. "Hell yes, I did! I have an audition for this big modeling company next week. I'm so excited!"

"Congrats!" Phoebe and Hiza cheers'd as Rodney came over from the business side of the bar.

"What are we cheersing to? Did you finally tell Hiza your secret?"

"What secret?" Hiza asked.

If the bar didn't have a wall under it, Phoebe would have kicked Rodney then and there.

"Ummmm, I don't know. I just had a shot of Patron and I'm feeling it hard," Rodney laughed and pretended to go service another customer to avoid the awkwardness.

"Phoebe? What secret?" Hiza asked, turning to her.

Phoebe thought fast. "Umm, my mom. What really happened to her....she, uh, she drowned. And seeing that woman nearly drown just...." Phoebe began to feel her eyes watering. Bringing up her mother's death was always a sore spot. But it was just enough of the truth to convince Hiza to back off for now.

"Oh, sweetey," Hiza put down her drink and snatched Phoebe into a tight hug. "It's alright. I'm just glad you finally told me. You never talk about her, really."

"Yeah," Phoebe pulled away and wiped at her face. "I'm just glad to finally get it all out."

"Let me buy you a drink," Hiza motioned towards Rodney.

As Hiza ordered her drink, Phoebe sat and thought about her life. Her mother's killer was out there still, here in New York, and he had a human form now, thanks to Phoebe! However, she pushed these dark thoughts out of her head as Hiza gave her her drink. "Let's toast."

Phoebe, Hiza, and Rodney all placed their glasses in the air.

"To friends!" They all cheered.

"To whom I'll always be grateful for," Phoebe added to herself with a warm smile.



....The end.

[Patrick]

Episode 3

"The Revenge of Matthew Tate"

Part One



Prue flies in for a visit only to have her body taken over by another force who is intent on destroying Phoebe and her family. Meanwhile, Hiza comes face to face with her first demons during a modeling audition.

---

"So when does Prim arrive?" Hiza asked triple-checking her model portfolio as she got ready for her audition.

Phoebe snorted. "Her name's Prue. And she was supposed to arrive-" Phoebe checked the time on her coral colored iPhone "-oh, five minutes ago." She pocketed her phone and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear worriedly.

Hiza noticed and asked with a raised eyebrow, "What's with the 'tude of doom? Is your sister, like, some hard-ass or something?"

Phoebe exhaled before answering. "Let's just say she has a way of making me feel like...a kid again."

Hiza, being an only child, couldn't relate. "Well, you grew up in different states. How bad can she really be?"

"It's just her personality," Phoebe explained. "I guess she always felt responsible for what happened to our mom and having one of her sisters living on the other side of the country with her own father, well, I guess she didn't have it easy growing up."

This time, it was Hiza who snorted. "Sounds like Prim has a classic case of being the brooding type. Maybe tell her to chill, take her out shopping or something."


"Aherm. It's Prue." The voice came from behind them.

Both of the girls jumped in surprise, turning to see the eldest Halliwell sister standing in their door frame.

"Prue!" Phoebe walked over, giving her sister an awkward hug before saying, "How'd you get in here?"

She held up her empty hand and waved it, signaling that she used her powers. Phoebe understood immediately.

"Right," Phoebe stammered. "Your, erm, lock-picking skills. Anyways, Prue, this is Hiza. Hiza, Prue." She introduced the girls.

"Hi," Prue waved at Hiza. "I'm the hard-ass of the family."

Hiza made a face. "You heard that, huh? Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I'm going to be late. Wish me luck!"

Phoebe smiled and wished her friend luck as the blonde ran out of the door after grabbing a Fiji water.

"Luck for what?" Prue asked.

"Her audition. Hiza's a model."

"Figures."


*

Half an hour later, Hiza sat in the hallway of a Marriott hotel outside of a ballroom. The doors to the ballroom were closed, sound came from the other side, then a model would walk out of them, followed by a voice yelling, NEXT, from inside.

Hiza was maybe the fifth girl in line. She wasn't paying attention at first, but after the second girl walked out, she started to get a weird feeling. The same weird feeling she got when her and Phoebe first moved into their apartment. And another time, when her and Phoebe were at the club, Smok. Hiza watched the third girl go in.

When the third girl came back out, Hiza noticed that she walked differently. Hiza studied body posture and walking gaits since she was a little girl. It was her one area of expertise. After the fourth girl went in, and came back out, Hiza was positive that this time, not only was her walk different, but so were her eyes. The fourth girl went in chipper and happy, yet came out looking vengeful and vindictive.

"NEXT!"

It was Hiza's turn.

Hiza turned to the girls behind her in line. They seemed oblivious to the attitude changes of their competition. It was only Hiza noticing. 

"NEXT!"

Deciding she was just being paranoid, she straightened herself up, grabbed her portfolio and walked into the ballroom.


*


"Micro spells?" Phoebe questioned.

Prue was sitting with Phoebe in the living room of her apartment and had a bowl of water out in front of them. "Yes. Think of them as a short-hand version of incantations. They're just as powerful as real spells and takes no time at all to cast."

"Why don't you or Piper do them all the time? Or even Grams?" Phoebe questioned.

"Because," Prue explained, "Only evolved witches can really do them. I've never seen it in practice, but I've read about them during my studies. Since you're the Charmed One, you should be able to cast them much easier. We'll start with water since you recently solidified the water demon. It's best to stick to what you're powers are kind of already doing. Try it."

Phoebe looked at the bowl of water in front of them on the coffee table and laughed. "You honestly think I can CONTROL that with my mind?"

Prue rolled her eyes and started to reach for the bowl to clean it up. "Forget it. If you're not going to take this seriousl-"

"Okay! Okay," Phoebe subsided her giggles and put on her game face. "I'll try. What do I do?"

Prue instructed her. "Focus on your intent. You want to be able to control water with your mind. Keep focusing on that thought. You should feel a power building inside of you. Let it build until you think you're ready. Then just say whatever comes to your mind. You'll see."

"What?" Phoebe questioned. "You sure you didn't get this from Witch-I-Pedia or something?"

Prue cleared her throat.

"Fine," Phoebe closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few seconds, she already started to feel what Prue was talking about. She focused more and words were starting to form on her lips.

Before she knew it, Phoebe had her arms up towards the bowl. She opened her eyes and recited, quietly yet forcefully, "Bend!"

The water in the bowl jerked and went up into the air a few inches before falling back down, creating a cascade of waves within the bowl.

Phoebe jumped up. "Whoa! Did you see that!" 

Prue smiled. "I did"

"But how?"

"I told you," Prue said while standing up. "Micro spells. You can do them now since you're a Charmed One. The only catch is practicing each and every spell until you become good enough at it. Raising a handful of water two inches off the ground may seem cool now, but practice that one spell and you might be able to do more. Excuse me. I have to feed the meter -hate New York parking. I'll be back up and then I can teach you more. With mom's killer out there, you have to be ready."

"Aye, aye," Phoebe saluted mockingly, still giddy from her first water spell.

Prue exit the apartment with her wallet in hand and descended down the stairs of the complex. She saw a man at the bottom, appearing eager and anxious.She wondered if he could be waiting for someone when suddenly she was hit over the head with a blunt object and her world went black.


*

"Look into the lens, please," the photographer instructed Hiza.

She didn't. She was too busy scanning the room for trap doors, men in black masks, or something equally sinister to explain the models' weird behavior.

"I said LOOK into the lens!" The photographer barked.

Something about the way he yelled at her, made Hiza jump. She looked at the man and saw true anger in his eyes. It was hot and liquid, poisonous; was it evil? Is that how evil looked? Hiza wouldn't know. But she would venture a guess and say: yes, this man was evil.

Hiza moved towards the doors. "Umm, I just have to use the bathroom real quick."

The photographer jumped in front of her, blocking her exit.

She shrieked. He smiled. The bastard smiled! He was enjoying this. The sicko.

"That's it," Hiza doved and reached for her cell phone sitting nearby and dialed the first number in her recent calls for help, Rodney. The man raced her for it and knocked it towards the ground. The phone fell and shattered from the force.

"What the hell!?" Hiza screamed. "I just got that phone yesterday! What is your problem?" However, the man wasn't listening. He was laughing in a maniacal way. It was time for Hiza to run.

She exit the doors and started looking for help.

The other models in the waiting room were gone. Instead, in their place, sat the previous models. All staring and laughing at Hiza. They had the same evil look in their eyes as the photographer.

Hiza felt like she was in The Body Snatchers. "Wh- where the other girls go?" Hiza asked, fear in her voice.

The models all stood. "Same place you're going to be in a few minutes," one of the models offered.

Hiza felt the hair on her neck stand up. It was time to run...again.


*


Prue came back into the apartment and started walking aimlessly around, observing the furniture and glancing towards Phoebe periodically.

Phoebe raised an eyebrow. "What? Don't tell me you disapprove of my interior decorating skills now. Hey, where's your wallet? Did you feed the meter?"

Prue brushed a finger along the wood of the windowsill, testing it for dirt. "No. I admire the way you live, Phoebe. Very...quaint and boorish."

"Okay, is this some sort of test?" Phoebe asked. "Insult me until I'm mad enough to throw more water around?"

Prue turned and gave Phoebe and inquisitive look. "How do you mean?"

Before Phoebe could even answer, Rodney burst into her apartment.

"Does ANYONE bother to ring the buzzer nowadays?" Phoebe quipped. "How are you people getting into my complex so easily?"

"You people?" Rodney asked, taken aback for a moment. Then shook it off, beginning to talk quickly and said everything in one entire breath. "Forget that. I just got a call from Hiza. It got disconnected, tried to call back, straight to voicemail. Felt weird about it all. Did my gypsy thing and she's in serious trouble. Oh, and that's a warlock spirit, in case you didn't know."

"What?" Phoebe was processing what he'd said about Hiza. Then, processed what he'd said about Prue. "WHAT!?"

They both turned to Prue who was standing infront of a mirror hung up on Phoebe's wall.

Phoebe saw only her sister, Prue. But through the mirror, Rodney could see a man drenched in a dark aura.

Prue/the warlock hissed. "Gypsies....have not changed."


*

Hiza managed to get away from the models and was currently hiding in a staircase hall that lead from the lobby. The models had spread out over the hotel and managed to somehow get the other guests and staff to go away. She was trapped in this building and her only way out was through a horde of evil models.

"Drugs," she whispered to herself. "Someone must have drugged me and I'm tripping balls right now. That's got to be it." She nodded, accepting her rational explanation. "I just gotta ride this trip out and I'm good..."

The door infront of her, which lead to the lobby a second ago, suddenly opened up to reveal what looked like the basement of her apartment complex. A banged up Phoebe and Rodney were on the other side.

"Hiza, are you okay?" Phoebe asked, rushing forward and grabbing her friend's arm. "Come on, we don't have much time."

"What happened?" Hiza asked, looking at the scrapes and scratches on Phoebe's body. "What's happening!?" She shrieked, referring to the evil models.


Phoebe ushered her friend away from the stairs and towards the magical doorway. "No time to explain, we just gotta get you out of here before-"

Prue/The warlock appeared behind Rodney in the apartment basement.

"Rodney!" Phoebe warned.

Prue/The warlock flicked her wrist and the door shut violently. Ending the doorway spell and trapping Phoebe and Hiza in a hotel filled with evil models, as well as trapping Rodney in a basement with a warlock inside of a telekinetic witch's body.

"Phoebe!" Hiza yelled. "What the hell is going on!?"

The door opened again. Only this time, it wasn't Rodney or the warlock. It was a beautiful and creamy dark-skinned woman with short hair and impeccable bone structure. She had a crazed look in her eye. A quick look past the model told Phoebe that her doorway spell had fizzled out because nothing but hotel lobby lay beyond it. They were truly trapped.

"Run!" Hiza instructed.

As Hiza and Phoebe ran up the stairs towards the second floor, Phoebe quickly explained. "We got in a fight back at the apartment. I think whoever is controlling these girls is the same person possessing my sister somehow. Which means they're after me and everyone I love."

"This makes no sense," Hiza said, reaching the second floor and following Phoebe. "What are you saying?"

Phoebe stopped and turned around to look Hiza in the eye. "I'm saying that magic is real. And a whole lot of it is after me right now. Which means it's also after you, and Rodney, and Dad, and Oh my god. This is all my fault."

"How?" Hiza asked. "What the hell is happening?"

"The warlock," Phoebe said, returning to finding an unlocked room she can use to hide in long enough to do another spell. "Before he attacked me and Rodney back at the apartment, he said something."

"Warlock? What is that? And what did he say?"

Phoebe found an open room. "Thank God. In here. Hurry."

"What did he say, Phoebe?" Hiza asked again. Wanting some answers, even if they didn't make sense.

Phoebe closed the door behind them and listened to make sure no models were coming down the hall. She sighed in relief and turned to Hiza.

"We're safe for now. As long as we're quiet."

"Phoebe! What's going on!?"

Phoebe exhaled. "I don't know. But the warlock...he said.....that I freed him."


....To Be Continued....