Charmed: Heritage – 115 – My Curse on You ~ Part 1

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 13, 2017 9:41:05 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Some sibling bonding with researching close by. lol Let's hope they can give the information to Chris and ask this latest buddy with the crystal. We shall pray!

I love writing those two together. They are so cute together.

Seth got the info to him and then he moved onto the next phase of his and Peter's plans for the day. They have a lot to do. It is nothing like what they planned to do.

For now though, here's Chris and . . . well, I actually don't plan on telling what his first name is for a while. Chris only knows him as Mr. Logan. His first name is relevant, but it'll be a while before I reveal it. Look for clues.

---

Chapter Eleven – Revelations

Chris stared down at the three sheets of paper Seth had dropped off. Seth had shimmered in, placed them on the table, and left without so much as a word. Chris picked up the paper at the top of the short pile. On it Seth had written “Jarod”. He looked down the words on the paper and read.

“According to anyone you could possibly ask, these are the ravings of a mad man, and they’d be right. But for once I am completely in control of my mind. Not that I’ve ever been out of control of my mind. It’s just that sometimes when fear grips you, it seems like it.

“There is something about a visit from my friends that calms me. Or perhaps I should say a visit from my friend, for while I see my wife, daughter, one of my other close friends, and on occasion even the other, it is this one that seems to leave me at ease. I think that is because when I was at my worst . . . the people here do not understand what that is . . . he was there and he was there only to help me.

“I can already feel the evil pressing in on me and soon the director here is going to notice that I broke into his office, so I cannot wait too long to post this.

“I want to go home. I want to have never heard of the Aphrodite Crystal, to never have seen that green glow. I want this all to stop. And yet, I cannot regret it, for while I have lost years of my life, Reggie is still alive.

“But why did it have to be at the stake of my own sanity?”

Chris frowned. Certainly it was about the Aphrodite Crystal, but there didn’t appear to be any useful information other than the fact that the man had survived. And he wondered where Seth had found the name, because the only name he saw was “Reggie” and the user name of JP1975 appeared to be the only clue to the man’s identity.

He picked up the second paper. The name Everett was written unnecessarily at the top, unnecessarily because it read like an Al-anon testimonial.

“My name is Everett and I am cursed.”

Chris’s frown grew deeper. Surely it didn’t mean . . . but then how many Everett’s could there be out there. Thousands he supposed, but . . .

“I can already see the eyes rolling and hear the sighs. You don’t believe me. Fine. This isn’t for you anyway. This is for those people who haven’t rolled their eyes or sighed in disbelief. This is a warning to those of you who understand and fear curses or even who don’t understand, but are willing to listen.

"My best friend, Reggie, is a collector of sorts, but then aren’t we all in one way or another. For Reggie it was gems, jewelry, rare glass works, and stuff like that.”

That cut it. There might be countless Everett’s out there, but how many had a best friend named Reggie. Of course this would be written by someone the other him had known. Of course it would.

“A rare and beautiful crystal came to Reggie’s attention, a stone said to be blessed by the Goddess Aphrodite. Of course, we didn’t believe any of that, who would? Still, something about it didn’t ring true, so together with another friend, Jarod, I began an investigation.

“The first thing I learned was that almost every owner in known history had died by their own hands within a day of acquiring it. I called and told Reggie, but he brushed this off as nonsense. Of course I’d always thought it was.

“The second thing I learned was of those who did survive the first day, they still had another six days of absolute terror where their foremost thought is ending it all and close behind that is the idea that everyone else was out to get them. That feeling never fully goes away, as I now fully know, but it lessens. After the first week they were not at suicidal, but always melancholy, always changed, except for one. That one, I learned, stated that he simply refused to let evil control him. I don’t know how he had the will to do that.

“With all this information the one thing we didn’t find was a cure. We found evidence of one, but we couldn’t find anything concrete about it no matter how hard we looked and then we simply ran out of time. We learned that Reggie had located the crystal and taken possession of it, which meant that it had already infected him. We didn’t have time for cures. We had to act.

“We found another friend who we could trust to help us and do as we said, without question. We then found Reggie and Jarod and I tied him up, while our friend, Nick, waited and attempted to give instruction on the side. No one appreciated that much. We told him to stay away. He did and asked how he was supposed to feed us if he couldn’t get near us. Smart aleck.

“He found ways though. Staying several feet from us at all times he still managed to feed us. And he kept us from killing our selves. He did not, however keep us from yelling ourselves hoarse, shouting obscenities at each other, or in general being extremely obnoxious to him and each other. But then, that’s not really that unusual.

“After one week, eight days actually (just in case), he untied us, and we learned that Jarod probably could have escaped at any point in time. At the time I thought that meant he must have had an extremely high will power . . . I was wrong.

“It took fifteen years before Jarod went completely mad with it. His wife was forced to put him in an insane asylum. I saw the look of betrayal in his teenage daughter’s eyes as he was taken away.

“It’s been ten years since then. Reggie is doing well for himself, though I have twice found him contemplating suicide for the constant barrage of depression and to escape the feel of evil. I nearly tried it once myself. Then, my daughter ran into the room and asked if she could have the rope for one of her brother’s experiments. I never once thought of it, again. I do not believe my children ever knew what I was thinking that day.

“You would not know what I was going through if you met me on the street. You would not realize the terror I go through every day, or understand quite how much I dearly hold to those closest to me, my lifeline. My own son goes blithely around, working on his experiments, not understanding why sometimes I don’t want to talk, sometimes I simply cannot share his enthusiasm, and sometimes I seem angry when no one has done anything to anger me. My darling daughter has a happy go lucky personality that I miss, for once I had one like it.

“I have never found the cure. I will never quit looking, because if there is a way to get rid of this evil that haunts me, this depression that fills me, I will take it in a minute . . . so long as it does not involve the death that would surely hurt my wife and kids more than my depression ever could. And if I can find a way to aid Reggie or save Jarod, I will.

“Nick told me that the closest he ever found to a cure were words written in an old book saying only “Ijah took the potion from the witch and drank it. Before she had even finished it she felt a change and she saw a green glow emanate from her body. It gathered in a cloud in front of her and dissipated. A feeling replaced it, one she nearly didn’t recognize for the ten long years she had been without it. Ijah felt happy.”

“Sadly it is fiction, but the description is close enough that I wonder if perhaps it is based on a situation similar to ours. Only it has been twenty-five years and still we have found no cure.

“You may not believe me. You probably don’t believe me, but every word I wrote is the truth as I know it. I write this for two reasons. The first is to warn. If anyone out there is thinking of finding the Aphrodite Crystal . . . don’t. It is far too dangerous. And secondly, if you do know the cure, please find me. I don’t want to feel this way any longer than I can prevent it. If you truly wish to find me I have provided all the information you need here.

“Be careful.”

The last one with the name “Reggie” written on it seemed almost irrelevant, though it provided useful information. Everett Lawson had told Chris everything he needed to know. Or at least everything except for how to cure the curse.

It was funny, Mr. Lawson hadn’t seemed cursed when Chris had known him in the other time line and yet he must have been. It had been at least twenty-five years since this happened, so it had been at least three years before Chris was even born.

Then, another thought hit him. If Everett was Everett Lawson, and he surely was, then Reggie was Reginald Hollis, which meant that his former boss, who he had seen nearly every day for over a year, was also cursed, and Chris had never noticed.

But then if someone had been cursed for over twenty-five years they either went crazy or they learned to control their outer reactions.

A knock on the apartment door brought Chris out of his thoughts. He flipped over the papers, just in case whoever there came in. He didn’t want to explain why he had them.

There was another knock as Chris reached the door. He pulled it open and looked into the face of his landlord, Mr. Logan. Surprised he stepped out of the way. “Hi, Mr. Logan, what brings you here?” Mr. Logan had to be ninety, but he got around better than some people half his age and he still did some of the work on his apartments.

“Hello, Christopher.” For whatever reason, Mr. Logan liked to call him by his full name rather than his nickname. He stepped in and walked toward the bathroom. “There have been complaints from the apartment below yours.”

Chris blinked in surprise. “Really?”

Mr. Logan nodded and turned to look at him. “There’s water damage along the wall.”

“Oh,” Chris replied dumbly.

“I’m just trying to see if I can find the source before I call the plumber.”

“I see.”

Mr. Logan looked at a picture on the wall of Chris and Wyatt with their parents. There was an odd look on his face as he turned to look back at Chris. “Who are these with you and your brother?”

“That’s our parents,” Chris informed him.

“Their names?”

“Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt,” Chris informed him, pointed unnecessarily at each in turn.

Mr. Logan gulped. “I see.” There was an odd silence, before he spoke again. “Well, I’d better check for that leak.”

“Can you check later?” Chris requested. “I’m kind of in the middle of something and I don’t need plumbers in and out of the apartment.”

“Not really,” Mr. Logan replied. “No, it’s gone too long as is. They took their time letting me know. If you had seen the apartment below you, you wouldn’t ask. Maybe it will be the apartment above you.”

“I doubt it,” Chris retorted. “No, I haven’t seen any evidence of this, so I doubt it’s above me.”

Mr. Logan nodded. “It will only take me a minute to check that. I suggest you find somewhere else to go for the day if you need peace and quiet. Sorry, Christopher.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Chris sighed. “I’m just going to grab a few things and I’ll let you see yourself out. Have a good day, Mr. Logan.”

Mr. Logan smiled and nodded.

As Mr. Logan headed into the bathroom, Chris headed back into the living room and grabbed the papers Seth had brought along with his laptop. He needed to head over to the manor and check the book anyway. He closed his eyes, ready to orb out.

Except nothing happened.

---

And finally Chris knows that Wyatt isn't the only one with a problem.

[Chrisaholic]

Oha, not good with all the problems Chris has at his hands. Seeing that writers were somehow related to him, and now the water problem at the house and with Mr. Logan probably another relative of him. Maybe someone from his father's past, or Leo's father maybe. Now that could be interesting!

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 14, 2017 9:15:11 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Oha, not good with all the problems Chris has at his hands. Seeing that writers were somehow related to him, and now the water problem at the house and with Mr. Logan probably another relative of him. Maybe someone from his father's past, or Leo's father maybe. Now that could be interesting!

Hehe. Now there's an identity I did not consider for this character. I will answer that. Mr. Logan is old, but he's not that old. He has gotten to the age he is with no magical aid and Logan is the last name he was born with. I believe he was born in the early forties or late thirties although I would have to double check that. He's was born in San Francisco although I cannot say if he's lived here his entire life. I think he probably has other than college if he went (haven't really thought about if he want to college).

For now let's take a look at what Seth and Peter are doing. Chris (and Mr. Logan) will be back in the next chapter.

---

Chapter Twelve – The Blogger

Seth and Peter sat in Seth’s old red Ford Fusion. Seth compared the address he had gotten out of the phone book with the one on the door. “Looks like this is it.”

“Yeah,” Peter replied sardonically. “I figured that out five minutes ago. Are we going in?”

Seth frowned. “No, I think we are not going in. We don’t know anything about this guy, so I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to come in with me.”

“Seth, I’m not a little kid,” Peter protested. “I want to help you with this. I’m the one who found out about him in the first place.”

Seth looked at his brother through narrow eyes.

“Besides, you took me here,” Peter commented innocently. “You can’t leave me in the car.”

Seth scowled and then snorted. “Right. Come on.”

Peter grinned and did a little arm pump move before opening his door and getting out. He followed his brother to the front door of the single level, single dwelling house. He reached the door first and tap on it.

Several seconds went by before they heard the sound of footsteps. The door opened and a man in his fifties pulled open the door and looked at them. “I thought I told your friends I was not going to buy anything.”

“Nicholas Martinez?” Seth asked the shaggy haired man in front of him.

The man sighed and nodded. “And you are?”

“Did you write this?” Peter asked, holding up the copy he had printed out of the blog.

Nick groaned. “Can’t I post something on my blog without having every freak in the world coming out of the woodwork?”

Seth scowled. “I think I liked Wyatt’s twin’s terms better.”

Peter looked at him, surprised. “Wyatt has a twin?”

Seth nodded. “Now, she’s a freak.”

“Are you planning on just standing there yakking, or do you intend to tell me why I should talk to you?” Nick asked.

“What did she call you?” Peter whispered.

Seth chuckled and learned down. “Demon. What else?”

“And you liked that?” Peter asked perplexed.

Seth shrugged. “At least it’s accurate.” In a normal voice he looked at Nick and said, “I am not a freak.”

“Whatever,” Nick glared at him. “You are however on my front step not telling me why.”

“Seth,” Seth informed him holding out his hand. “And this is my little brother, Peter.”

“And my blog brought you here why?” Nick asked wearily.

“The Aphrodite Crystal showed up at my best friend’s work this morning,” Seth informed him matter of fact. “I need information.”

It took a second for the words to sink in and then Nick groaned. “Come in. I don’t know that I can help you much. If he’s been cursed . . .” he shrugged his shoulders in defeat, “there’s not much I can do or say to help.”

“You and your friends seem to be the experts,” Seth informed him as he and Peter entered the cluttered house. “Interesting décor.”

Nick shrugged as he shut the door behind them. “After last night I’ve been looking through everything I have on the Crystal to see if there is any reason some idiot would knowingly get close to it.” He waved a hand at the couch. “Have a seat.”

Peter plopped down on the couch, bouncing a little. “Good springs on this one.”

Nick grinned. “Yep. Ev always . . . anyway. You wanted information on the Crystal.”

“Why don’t we start with what you wrote here,” Seth started, taking note of the hesitant almost statement for later. “You said the Crystal was stolen. How do you know? And stolen from where?”

Nick hesitated and then walked over to the computer desk. He moved some papers that had fallen on his keyboard. He tapped the screen and typed some words into the web browser. A web site popped up and he tapped several levels of sub boards and got out of the way.

The camera was pointed on green glowing crystal, nestled into a rock next in a cavern. Seth watched the screen as three men walked into view of the camera. He listened as the argued over how to package the crystal into a box and then came the part that scared him.

“Is it worth it?” one of the men on the screen asked, looking doubtfully at the packaged gem.

“Only if it works,” the second man on the screen decided. “If it fails. . .”

“Humans will probably die even if it fails in its purpose,” the third man commented.

Seth shivered at the words.

“The cure?” the first man asked, though there was no doubt in Seth’s mind that all three were demons.

“Exceedingly hard to get,” the second remind him, having already said as much earlier.

“Which means there is one,” Nick mumbled.

Seth shushed him and continued to listen.

“The witch will suffer even if he doesn’t die,” the first one commented, sounding like he wanted reassurance.

Wyatt, Seth realized. These demons had stolen the Crystal specifically to get at Wyatt.

“What are you thinking?” the second and clearly more knowledgeable asked.

Seth watched amazed at the first demon walked up to the box and picked it up. The demon shrugged at the other two and shimmered out with the box.

Nick tapped the screen and the video paused. “They sound like they really want to hurt a witch. And those guys creep me out, so I’m not sure what to make of that. Aren’t witches bad?”

“Not on this planet they aren’t,” Seth retorted. “Those were the bad guys.”

“Clearly,” Nick replied scowling. “But that doesn’t mean they aren’t after someone evil, too.”

“Well, they aren’t,” Seth informed him. “I believe I read that you have a book about someone named Ijah who was saved from this by a witch.”

“But that’s fiction,” Nick protested.

“I rather doubt it,” Seth replied. “Oh, the names may have been changed to protect people, especially if it was published during the lifetime of those involved, but most likely it’s fact.”

“But that’s crazy.”

“Your friends are cursed,” Seth reminded him. “And you think that book being fact is crazy?”

That caused Nick to pause. “Well. Um.”

“Yeah, I thought so,” Seth smirked. “May I see the book?”

Nick walked away from the desk and over to the book case. He grabbed an old ratty looking book and brought it over to Seth. “There’s not a whole lot in there. And while it mentions a potion that Ijah drinks, it doesn’t say what’s in it.”

“Of course not,” Seth mumbled as he looked through the small book. “That would be too easy. And this never is.”

Nick looked at him curiously. “What are you mumbling about?”

“Oh, nothing,” Seth assured him. “It just would have surprised me if the potion was in there.”

“I guess,” Nick replied, uncertain. “If you find the cure, can you bring it back here?”

Seth looked at him. “If you tell me where to go, I can bring it directly to your friends.”

“You won’t be able to get to Jarod,” Nick informed him. “Only a select list can get in there.”

“I can get in,” Seth assured him.

“Well, without me, you won’t get him to take it,” Nick informed him.

Seth inclined his head. “That’s probably true. Could you at least give me some last names to go with your friends, so I can try and talk to the other two, Everett and Reggie.”

Nick considered this and nodded. “Ev’s last name is Lawson. Phone’s listed under his son, Miles, though, as is probably everything else. Miles is an inventor and Ev has a hard time holding down a job. He quit trying when Miles started making more than twice what he was. Reggie’s last name is Hollis. He’s actually done all right for himself, considering. He’s the manager of . . .”

“Centennial,” Seth interrupted. “That’s some coincidence.”

Nick looked at him confused. “How’s that?”

“I told you the Crystal showed up at my best friend’s work.”

Nick nodded.

“Well, his brother used to work at Centennial.”

Nick chuckled. “Yeah, that’s odd. That is Reggie.”

Seth nodded. “Who would know the most about the Crystal?”

“You’re looking at him,” Nick informed him. “I don’t know how much I can help, but I’m definitely the one who knows the most.”

Seth nodded. “Then, tell me everything you can and I’ll pass it on to my friends.”

Nick walked over to the couch and sat down on the opposite end from Peter. “This could take a while.”

---

Amazingly, Chris has a closer connection to one of the friends other than Reggie, but it has to do with the other timeline. Also, you have already heard mention of all three of these characters or their families before this story. Can you figure out when?

[Chrisaholic]

Interesting, very interesting. Maybe Seth and Peter can gather the information they need and help anyone - somehow. Eh, can't remember all since it's been a long time when I read your stories. Wonder though what Chris will do now.

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 15, 2017 11:29:24 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Interesting, very interesting. Maybe Seth and Peter can gather the information they need and help anyone - somehow. Eh, can't remember all since it's been a long time when I read your stories. Wonder though what Chris will do now.

That's okay. Most of the references were very minor. Once I give you more info on them (and it will be coming), I'' let you know the connections if they aren't obvious (or even if they are, I suppose). Enjoy more.

---

Chapter Thirteen – Worry and a Witness

Chris sat on the couch stunned. How could this happen? How could his powers just stop working? He’d tried using his telekinesis, but nothing had moved, not even an inch. The same thing happened when he tried to orb something to him. Nothing.

“Definitely coming from your bathroom,” Mr. Logan informed Chris from the doorway. “I’m going to the call the plumbers, but I thought you were going somewhere.”

Chris nodded. “I need to grab my keys.” It seemed quite a dumb thing to say to someone who was as old as Mr. Logan. He probably couldn’t drive anymore.

“Are you all right?”

No. Chris hesitated just long enough to bring a frown to Mr. Logan’s wrinkled face. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Which means do worry,” Mr. Logan commented. “Christopher, if you’re sick, you should see a doctor.”

“I’m not sick,” Chris assured him. I just can’t seem to use magic.

Mr. Logan looked him over. “Are you sure? You look pale, Christopher.”

Chris nodded. “Yeah, I’m definitely not sick. Thanks for the concern though.”

“My cousins, Leonard and Irena, are retired doctors and there’s several in their family, if it would help,” Mr. Logan offered.

“Really, Mr. Logan,” Chris insisted. He paused and instead of finishing he asked, “Do I look that bad?”

Mr. Logan nodded slowly. “Yes.”

Chris chuckled. “Look, I’m going to head over to my parents house and my dad has medical training, so if he thinks something wrong, I’ll be in good hands. Will that be satisfactory?”

Mr. Logan eyed him. “Just be careful.”

A knock on the door startled them. Chris shrugged and headed toward the door, pulling it open without waiting to find out who was there. He stared with surprise at the face of Brianna standing there with her hand ready to knock. “What are you doing here?”

“After last night I . . .”

Chris covered her mouth with his hand. “Shh. My landlord’s here.”

“Then, why ask?” she asked giving him an odd look.

“I wasn’t thinking,” Chris admitted.

“Clearly,” she agreed easily. “We need to talk.”

“If this is about last night . . .” Chris began.

“The plumber is on his way,” Mr. Logan announced from the hall behind them. “Make sure you talk to your dad.”

“Sure, Mr. Logan,” Chris agreed quickly. He watched as Mr. Logan left the apartment and started down the hall before he slumped against the wall and groaned. “I can’t believe this.”

“What was that about?” Brianna asked curiously as she entered the apartment.

“He was worried about me,” Chris informed her as he closed the door behind her. “My powers don’t appear to be working and I guess he noticed the panic on me.”

“Oh.” She looked at him for several seconds, before asking, “Not working? What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Chris admitted. “I’ve tested my powers and nothing seems to work.”

“Have you cast any spells?” She asked as she went into the living room and sat down.

“No,” he admitted as he followed her, “but I only figured this out a few minutes ago and my landlord was here. Any spell I could think of would have been noticed by my landlord.”

She nodded absently. “That would have problematic, though I think he knows you’re a witch.”

Chris stared at her. “What? How could he know?”

She shrugged. “No idea. I’m an empath, not a telepath. If you want me to call . . . but never mind that. He’s busy anyway. Not to mention he has problems. They all have problems.”

“What?” Chris looked at her confused. “What on earth are you talking about?”

She waved her hand dismissively. “I know it’s not what you want to hear, but I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s not why I’m here, anyway. I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but I’m frustrated, so I apologize.”

“I see,” Chris replied, only partially getting what she was trying to say. “In that case, why are you here?”

“I checked the isolation chamber,” she announced.

Chris frowned as he looked at her, trying to figure out what she was talking about. Then, remember Seth’s comments the night before he nodded for her to continue. When she didn’t he attempted to prod her. “You checked the isolation chamber. What were you looking for? We already know the demons are there.”

She shook her head. “Wrong. I checked it out and there is a demon in there and it is one of the demons from the restaurant. Problem is, there’s only one.”

“Why come to me?” Chris asked confused. “Why not go to your friends?”

“I told you they have problems to deal with,” she reminded him.

“But what’s the matter with them?” Chris pressed.

“Can we just say they are preoccupied and leave it at that?” Brianna requested.

“For now,” Chris relented. “Did you find anything about the other two?”

“I’ll get back to them,” she assured him. “The demon in the isolation chamber is only there for a short time. The talk is that he got too close to a cursed gem and he’s extremely suicidal as a result.”

Chris felt a sick feeling in the bottom of his stomach. This sounded too much like the Aphrodite Crystal to him, which meant this demon had somehow been responsible for its arrival at the museum.

“If he can survive the next week or so,” Brianna continued, taking note of the look on his face and temporarily ignoring it, “he’ll be past the worst of it. Thing is, he’ll never be past the depression and sometimes he’ll get suicidal, again.”

“Never?” Chris queried. Everett Lawson’s writing had implied that there was some sort of cure. “No cure?”

“There’s a cure,” she admitted, “but it’s almost impossible to get.”

“Well, we have to find it,” Chris informed her.

“Do you have any idea how difficult that is?” Brianna asked.

“My brother’s infected,” Chris sighed, “and at least two innocents.”

Brianna gulped. “Oh.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then, we’d better get started,” she decided. “This isn’t going to be easy.”

---

I chose not to follow Brianna and what she's been doing may not all be obvious, but the most relevant thing was her finding out what happened to the demon in the "psych ward." Knowing he and his pals were up to something, she also did some research into what caused his condition, which is the part that's not as obvious. She has a source. Actually, she probably has a bunch of them. She's got some strange contacts.

[Chrisaholic]

Hehe, many problems ahead for Chris. Let's hope he can figure out where his lack of powers comes from and on top, the information from Brianna. At least, they're working together and find a solution. For all problems!

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 16, 2017 7:22:49 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Hehe, many problems ahead for Chris. Let's hope he can figure out where his lack of powers comes from and on top, the information from Brianna. At least, they're working together and find a solution. For all problems!

First, he decides this problem requires more help, but on his terms.

---

Chapter Fourteen – Call For Help

Piper Halliwell looked at the note on the kitchen table. Leo had, apparently, been in a hurry, when he left early that morning.

“Dear Piper,

“Kevin was in here this morning. He wanted me to help him with a little girl. Her mother was a single mother and she died in a car accident last night. She is now a whitelighter, but that means her daughter is without any parents. I’ve met her before. She in a second grade class with one of my students, so Kevin thought it might be helpful if I were to talk to her, maybe reacquainted her with my student.

“I don’t know how much use I’ll be, but I called Henry and asked him to go with me since he’s with the police. Paige agreed to help if we run into trouble with social services.

“If all goes well, I should be back around noon, but I promised Hank I’d be over around two and I have a meeting with the college admissions office at four. I should be home from that by five. If you need me for anything, call me.

“I love you,

“Leo”

Piper put the note back on the table and headed toward the kitchen. She was stepping through the doorway when the phone rang. She shook her head and headed into the front hall and grabbed up the phone. “Halliwell.”

“Mom, my powers are gone,” Chris announced from the other side of the phone.

Piper inhaled sharply. “What did you say?”

“I said my powers are gone,” he repeated, “and I really need them right now. Wyatt needs my help.”

“What’s wrong with your brother?”

“I’m on that,” Chris informed her.

“Christopher Perry Halliwell, you do not tell me that something is wrong with your brother while you have no powers and then tell me nothing.”

“I’m still learning the details, Mom,” Chris admitted, “but I kind of have to go. Can you try and figure out what’s wrong with my powers?”

“Not without you here,” she informed him.

“Well, try,” Chris requested. “I need to hunt down some ingredients for a potion Wyatt’s going to need and I don’t have time to wait.”

“You do not just dump something like this on me,” Piper repeated. “Get over here and . . .”

“And what?” Chris interrupted. “Wait around and do nothing. My brother is in danger and innocents are at stake. My information is extremely limited, but I know Wyatt will need this potion. Is there anything you can do without me? I mean if my powers have been stripped, I can’t exactly get them back and if they’ve been bound, there’s not a whole lot we can do until we find who bound them and how.”

Piper closed her eyes. She didn’t want to let him just go off on his own without his powers. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t had them for nearly two decades. There weren’t demons chasing after him during those two decades. Now there were.

“Mom, I’ll be all right,” Chris tried to assure her. “I’ve got help, another witch. And I can fight. Aunt Phoebe taught me well.”

“Phoebe,” Piper mumbled sadly. “Why can’t we find her?”

Having no answer for his mom, Chris didn’t answer. “Can you look into this without me?”

“At least give me some idea where you are going or what is wrong with your brother,” his mom insisted. “If one of my sons is in immediate danger, then I am not going to let the other one just go without some explanation, especially when he doesn’t have any powers. Can you at least cast a spell?”

“No,” Chris admitted. “I tried a couple and nothing worked.”

Piper sighed. “Christopher.”

“Call Seth,” Chris suggested. “He’s looking into it, too. He left me some papers, but I think he probably was on to something.” There was a catch in his voice as he added. “My boss, at Centennial. He was cursed, is cursed, and I had no idea. He was trying to find a stone called The Aphrodite Crystal, because it was supposed to bless the person with some sort of powerful attraction to someone they were attracted to or something like that. Only some demon got their hands on it and they cursed it, made whoever got too near it paranoid and suicidal.”

“Are you saying your brother is suicidal?” Piper practically yelled.

“Only if he’s been infected,” Chris informed her. “The last I knew, he hadn’t been. However, his friend Nathan has been, or at least that’s what I got out of the message Wy left and he destroyed Wy’s phone, which is what I got out of the comments Emily passed on from her brother.”

“Now you’re having Emily pass on messages for you?” Piper asked, slightly annoyed now that the fear had lessened. “You have to be careful about that.”

“Wyatt’s the one who used her to pass on a message,” Chris informed him. “And I have to go. If you need information call Seth. Please, Mom.”

Piper sighed. “Be careful.” There really wasn’t much she could do. It didn’t make her feel any better about it.

“I’ll do my best,” Chris assured her before he hung up.

Piper looked at the phone and considered what to do next. A smile crept across her lips as she dialed in an unfamiliar number, one that was quickly becoming familiar. “Hi, Andy,” she said to the man who answered the phone. “Is Prue home?”

[Chrisaholic]

Typical Chris but he's right. Maybe one of his relatives can find out what has happened in both cases. It's complicated enough as it is.

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 16, 2017 14:10:44 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Typical Chris but he's right. Maybe one of his relatives can find out what has happened in both cases. It's complicated enough as it is.

Definitely complicated enough on one front without having to deal with both fronts on his own. Getting help is not a sign of weakness, no matter how much Chris might sometimes think it is.

This particular source of help would definitely surprise him if he had any idea though.

---

Chapter Fifteen – Addison

Flashback
and Cobber
Flashback

Her white Mercedes Benz would have stuck out, so Addison Rooks had decided to walk. It was a decision she had long since come to regret, but there was no changing it now.

Besides she was committed to this. After making the decision to go along with the demon rather than tattle or vanquish him then and there, there had been no question of the actions that would follow. She had waited until the demon, Cobber she had later learned, had approached her, again.

---

“That was a very good job you did there,” a voice behind her announced. “My employer is quite pleased.”

So I was right, she thought with a scowl. Someone else is involved in this. She recognized the voice behind her. It wasn’t one she wanted to hear, but he had just provided her with all the information she needed to seal his doom. By the time she turned around there was a sickly sweet smile on her face. “I do not mess around. What did you think was going to happen?”

“I thought you were going to back out and not do it,” he admitted.

“I always do what I say I am going to do,” she informed him with a sniff of disdain.

“An admirable trait in a witch, I’m sure,” he gaffed, “but hardly in a warlock.”

“But I am not a warlock, now am I?” she posed the question to him as she fingered the potion in the pocket of her sweater.

“But you . . .” Cobber looked at her confused.

“I told you I’m not interested in your war,” she reminded him. “Keep threatening my sister and I will get interested fast.”

“You don’t call the shots here,” he informed her.

“Oh, yes, I do,” she replied back, her voice flat as she withdrew the potion from her pocket and smashed it into him. She watched in silence as he burst into flames and vanished, leaving behind only burned cement. “No one threatens my sister and gets away with it.”

---

An hour later she was headed down the sidewalk toward her destination. If she hadn’t been at The Manor that night, she might have chosen a different destination for this trip, but she had been there that night and she knew what she heard.

---

“Can you believe the nerve of that girl?” Amanda Winslow asked her friends as she glared across the dining room of The Manor at another patron. “She thinks my boyfriend is just up for grabs. I could just choke her.”

“I think you’d better keep those homicidal tendencies to a minimum,” Kimberley Alton advised, “and let Jonah handle her. He’s not interested, so don’t worry.”

“But you heard her,” Amanda protested. “She said . . .”

“We all heard her,” Kimberley agreed. “Thing is I know for a fact the only time Jonah’s ever kissed her was in third grade as a dare. He’s not interested, Manda.”

“You have to admit it is rather odd that she should begin claiming all this now,” Addison commented.

Amanda and Kimberley looked at her confused. “Whatever do you mean, Addy?” Amanda asked.

Addison shook her head. “I cannot tell you what it is that I heard, but I certainly heard something less than flattering about Rebekah Simmons. She definitely is not interested in your boyfriend, Manda. At least she is not interested in stealing him from you. Perhaps she is interested in borrowing him from you, and I doubt she would be adverse to kissing him, but Kim is right. Jonah is only interested in you, so do not worry about it.”

Amanda looked at the bottom of her empty glass. “Where is that waitress? I want a refill. She is not getting a good tip from me.”

Addison glanced around and found their waitress, a leggy blonde whose name she couldn’t recall, on the phone. She looked at her amused and focused her attention on her. She was about to unclip a piece of clothing when the girl’s words reached her ears.

“. . . bright light moving thing, though.”

Addison froze, all her attention suddenly on the blonde waitress. Did she just say that? Is she talking about orbing? Who is that girl?

“You think I can say that with a dining room full of people?” the waitress asked in words so soft that Addison almost missed it. “What if one of them knew what that meant?”

Well, one of us does know what that means, Addison thought, eying the waitress with surprised curiosity.

“I do,” the waitress agreed to whatever was said on the phone. “They are looking at me, kind of annoyed right now, too.”

Addison almost jumped in surprise. She is talking about us.

“I figure that this message is important, so why don’t you tell me what to tell Chris?”

Chris? Is that the son of the owner? Addison’s full attention was on the waitress. There was something interesting going on.

“Do I tell him why?” the waitress asked, sounding curious.

I could not care less if you tell him, Addison silently pleaded. Tell me. What is going on?

“All right,” the waitress agreed. “I don’t think I’m going to get much of a tip on that table, but they’ll just have to wait.”

Addison looked at her friends. Both Amanda and Kimberley were looking at her expectedly. Apparently she’d missed something. She shook her head and looked back at the waitress.

“Will do,” the girl agreed, again. “I hope you save them, Mrs. Halliwell.”

So she is talking to her boss. What does Mrs. Piper Halliwell know about magic? I think it is time I had a chat with Dad.

The waitress said only two more words before she hung up the phone. “Your innocents.”

Watching her hang up the phone, Addison considered what she had just heard. She turned to her friends as the waitress headed into the kitchen. “Do not worry about the tip,” she directed her friends. “I have got it covered.”

What her friends thought she meant she neither knew nor cared. She simply made sure her tip made it into the waitress, one Emily Colson’s jacket with a note.

She went home contemplating what it would take to get a job at this restaurant where magical things happened. She intended to have a lot of fun.

She didn’t see the stunned look on Emily’s face later when it fell out of her jacket later as she got into her parents’ car and Emily found out what was within. The note had been only to assure her that this was no accident. She couldn’t very well leave the tip on the table. After all, one didn’t simply leave a hundred dollar bill lying around.

---

Now, Addison stood in front of Emily Colson’s door with a small package. She put the package on the doorstep and rang the doorbell. Then, she ran as fast as she could. Hopefully everything would go as she wanted.

---

Inside Emily heard the doorbell ring and got up from her chair in front of the desk. No one else was home, so she didn’t bother letting anyone know she was getting the door as she normally would.

She opened the door and saw no one. She frowned and looked around. She was about to give up when she noticed the package at her feet.

Curious she stopped down and picked it up. A label had been pasted on it that said, “To: Piper Halliwell. IMPORTANT.” Probably as an afterthought there was a handwritten note that read, “Fragile. Do not drop!!!”

Emily frowned as she held it. Why would someone bring something here that was meant for her boss?

---

What do you think my little fence rider is up to here?

[Chrisaholic]

Mmh, I take it that there's someone afraid of Piper and her powers. But to use Emily? Nice going, and now I wonder how Piper will react then and what's in that package. I think the original poison for Chris, right?

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 17, 2017 8:43:33 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Mmh, I take it that there's someone afraid of Piper and her powers. But to use Emily? Nice going, and now I wonder how Piper will react then and what's in that package. I think the original poison for Chris, right?

Yeah, she's not too interested in facing off against Piper. She figures Emily is safe.

---

Chapter Sixteen – The First Ingredient

Brianna reached up and grabbed a small leafy plant from the crag. She turned around and handed it to Chris. “Are you still woozy?”

Chris glared at her.

“It’s not my fault that you can’t deal with being blinked somewhere,” Brianna retorted. She looked at him for several more seconds and started laughing.

Chris glared even harder. “What’s so funny?”

She shook her head smiling. “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking of one of Toby’s more bizarre contests.”

“Contests?” Chris asked, finally accepting the plant. “What do you mean?”

She shrugged. “Well, in the particular case magical transportation.”

Chris groaned. “Any chance we can walk to the next ingredient?”

“Unlikely,” she informed him. “It’s usually found in Ireland. Good luck walking there.”

“My stomach’s only just quit turning,” he protested.

“Not much I can do about that,” she admitted. “Pity you can’t get there under your own powers.”

“In case you forgot, my powers are gone.”

“Can’t you do anything without magic?”

“I can walk,” he informed her, sarcastically, “and I know some self defense.”

“Wow,” she returned, equally sarcastic. “You really raised the bar high. Stripping someone’s powers . . .”

“Is that what you think happened?” he asked as he started climbing down.

“I don’t know,” she admitted with a small shrug as she followed behind him. “I wasn’t there. What do you think?”

“I don’t know,” he echoed. “Yesterday I had powers. Today I don’t.”

She sighed. “That’s tough, but whoever or whatever did this to you, left you alive, so there’s always hope.”

He chuckled. “You are an optimist, aren’t you?”

“You’ve met my friends,” she reminded him. “Someone needs to balance CT and Max and it sure won’t be Toby. And Aka doesn’t need optimism. She sees everything and everyone as they are. It’s a very black and white world . . . well, not really with all the colors she sees, but everything is very clear as to if it’s good or evil and pretty much everything else.”

“That doesn’t mean she doesn’t need optimism,” Chris retorted. “After all, she doesn’t see everything. And she doesn’t know the future.”

Brianna shrugged. “I think she’s too busy figuring everything out that’s right in front of her to think about the future.”

He inclined his head. “Fair enough, I suppose. So what’s this contest you were talking about?”

She laughed at that. “Well, all of us have some form of magical transportation, but only Aka and Toby could use theirs during the time without witchy magic.”

“Witchy magic?” Chris laughed.

She shrugged. “What else can you call it?” she asked. “I mean magic didn’t stop. Only certain magic stopped. Toby could dark orb, but he sure couldn’t create the acid so associated with his demonic mother’s kind. That was kind of amusing actually, last January when he woke up screaming because his mouth was burning.”

Chris looked at her concerned. “You mean, his powers were harming him.”

“He’d never really had them,” she informed him. “When he was little all he had was magical transportation. He was too small to have anything else, for that very reason. They genetically are formed to wait to get those types of powers, because if they can’t control them, it will kill them. We’d had a long night and it’s hard to get back to their home, so while Max went home, the other three spent the night at my place. What a way to learn that magic was back, let me tell you. How’d you learn?”

“I closed the Book of Shadows with my telekinesis trying to stop my brother from wasting his time trying to cure me as the me from another time line joined the me from this one and brought along mortal wounds.”

Brianna winced. “Ouch. You look fine though, so I guess he wasn’t wasting his time.”

Chris grinned. “Yeah, turns out I called that one wrong. Let’s get going. I think I can handle more of your blinking.”

She shook her head with a smile. “I just don’t get it. Why is it that you and CT can’t handle blinking? It’s a witch power and you two are witches.”

“Don’t know,” he scowled, again. “Can we just get this over with?”

“On it,” she informed him as she wrapped her arms around him and blinked. Just like that, they were gone.

[Chrisaholic]

Nice discussion here about the power department. Let's hope Chris (or someone else) can figure out why his powers are gone at the moment.

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 23, 2017 11:31:11 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Nice discussion here about the power department. Let's hope Chris (or someone else) can figure out why his powers are gone at the moment.

Thank you. That was fun. As to Chris powers, there will be developments on that front in the chapter after this one. What kind, well you'll see.

This chapter, title "Sisters" for the two sets of sisters in it, is related in a less direct way since this is part of Piper's plan to look into that. There are a couple of fun little clues into the future in this one, including one at the end that points to a story already in the works, "Imaginary Fiends (and Real Friends."

Enjoy

---

Chapter Seventeen – Sisters

Vicki Trudeau pulled an encyclopedia off the bookcase and started flipping through it. She stopped on one entry and brought it over to her sister, Pat. “Think Mom will take us with her?”

Pat shook her head. “We really aren’t much use, you know. As happy as I am that you have your power back, whatever it is . . .”

“I’ve been looking into that,” Vicki interrupted her. “According to the book I read, I might be some sort of dreamwalker, though the fact that I can apparently see all this while I’m awake, too seems to go counter to that idea. Clearly I can see both alternate dimensions and time lines, since I saw the twins before we ever got here and . . .”

“Yeah, you helped save those kids,” Pat interrupted this time. “It’s not that I’m not glad you did, and it’s not that I’m not glad we didn’t lose you. I am glad you helped with those kids. And I am glad that you came out of the whole thing unharmed. It’s just you bring it up at every possible opportunity and it gets old. Something like that shouldn’t be treated like that. It . . .” she shrugged and hugged her sister from behind. “Look, Vicki, I don’t ever want to lose you, but sometimes you could talk less.”

White orbs circled around the room and formed into their aunt, Paige Matthews-Mitchell.

Pat grinned over her sister’s shoulder at her. “And I really wish I could still do that.”

“Hi, girls,” Paige greeted with a smile. “Do you know where your mom is?”

Vicki nodded, silently.

“I’ll go get her,” Pat offered as she left the room.

Paige looked at her remaining niece. It seemed kind of odd to think of this girl she had met only two months previously as her niece. “Hi, Vicki.”

“Hi, Aunt Paige.” It was easy for Vicki to see the relationship. She’d known it her entire life.

“How do you like it here?” Paige asked, trying to get her to talk.

Vicki shrugged. “It’s not really what I’m used to. And may know the landscape, but I don’t know the people. I kind of wish we’d moved to San Francisco, but people will freak out when they see Dad and Mom.”

Paige smiled at that. “Yeah, well they’ll have to get used to that eventually. No one’s trying to keep you a secret.”

“You’re wrong about that,” Vicki informed her. “We still haven’t met Dad’s parents or Aunt Sarah. It’s not that we knew them in the other time line. They were dead, so we have no history to get in the way. The problem is that apparently in over two decades Uncle Ben never told his parents or his sister that his wife was a witch and so they know nothing of magic.”

Paige chuckled. “Yeah, that’s not an easy conversation to have. It took me years to tell my Aunt and Uncle. And sometimes it just seemed easier to not mention it, but when I faked my death and my aunt and uncle didn’t come to my funeral, it hit something in me. It still took a while, but eventually I talk to them, told them what was going on in my life and all about finding out I was a witch. They came to Henry and my wedding. And they were there for the twins’ christening and for Hanks, too. I’m glad I told them.”

“I don’t think it would be that easy for us,” Vicki admitted.

“My case was a little different,” Paige admitted. “I faked my death, not actually died. I was only gone for a few weeks, not decades. And they’d always known there was something different about me. They didn’t know it was that different, but they always knew there was something.”

“You got here faster than I thought,” Prue Halliwell-Trudeau announced as she entered the room.

Pat stood behind her.

“I orbed here,” Paige commented, amused. “How long did you think it was going to take me?”

Prue shrugged. “You said you need to get something before you came.”

Paige nodded. “And I did. You ready to go?”

Prue nodded. She looked at her daughters. “Tell, your dad that I left with Paige.”

“Can we come with you, Mom?” Vicki asked.

Prue shook her head. “You have a lot of homework and no experience. There is no evidence of alternate planes, so your powers are not needed, either.”

“But how do I get experience if I can’t come?” Vicki protested.

“Sweetheart, you’re thirteen,” Prue reminded her younger daughter. “Enjoy it while it lasts.” She placed a kiss on Vicki’s forehead. “I’ll call if I’m going to be late. Be good for your dad.”

“Ah, mom,” Vicki complained, ducking away. “I’m not a little kid. I’ll be fine.”

Pat giggled. “Mom, we’ll see you when we get back. I know you’re trying to help Aunt Piper’s boys, but have fun with your sisters.”

Prue smiled and planted a kiss on her older daughter’s forehead as well. “Be good.”

Pat nodded. “We will. Don’t worry, Mom.”

“Come on, Prue,” Paige urged.

Prue walked over to Paige and let her hug her as Paige orbed them out.

As soon as they were gone, Vicki went back to her book. She didn’t see Pat go over to the bookcase and pulled out some books.

Pat pulled out a small stack of papers and took them over to a small desk. In small careful writing she continued a sentence she had written. At the top of the page were the words “Missing People”. This was followed by a short list of names. “Karma. Mehgan. Trace.” Under the names were the words “Time of day?” Pat looked at the paper frustrated and closed her eyes. After a moment she added a date. February 2, 2000. She sighed and looked at the paper frustrated. There was more. I know there was more.

[Chrisaholic]

Yeah, complicated relations going on here with all the sisters and their relatives. At least, Prue's kids can find some news around the books. Let's hope for the best!

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 24, 2017 11:27:10 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Yeah, complicated relations going on here with all the sisters and their relatives. At least, Prue's kids can find some news around the books. Let's hope for the best!

It certainly can be complicated. Now, we're going to follow Prue and Paige as they arrive at the Manor.

---

Chapter Eighteen – What’s in the Box

Piper turned around at the sound of orbing. She grinned at the sight of Prue and Paige. “It’s good to have you here.”

“Is Chris all right?” Paige asked concerned.

“Chris’ is fine other than his powers being gone,” Piper informed her. “It’s Wyatt I’m worried about. Unfortunately Chris seems to think he can handle it and won’t give me much information.”

“I don’t like this,” Paige announced, “not going after the demon behind this. We may not be able to cast a power of three spell, but we’re still Charmed Ones.”

“Oh, we’ll go after the demon,” Piper informed her. “But first we need to at least see if we can figure out what’s up with Chris’ powers.”

“Kind of hard without Chris here,” Prue retorted.

“Well, we aren’t going to get him here,” Piper lamented, “so let’s see what we can find out.”

The sound of the doorbell had all three of them turning toward the front door.

“Paige, would you get that?” Piper requested.

“Sure,” Paige agreed as she headed into the front hall. She opened the door and saw Emily standing there with a box. “May I help you?”

“I need to speak with Mrs. Halliwell,” Emily announced.

Paige glanced back at her two sisters in the other room. “She’s kind of busy right now. Maybe I can help?”

Emily considered this. One question popped to the top. “Who are you?” She had a vague memory that she’d seen her before, probably as The Manor, but she wasn’t sure.

Paige stared at her. “You come to my sister’s place and you ask who I am?”

With those words Emily relaxed. “Oh, then you know about . . . white . . .”

Paige pulled her in before she could finished the word.

“. . . Lighters,” Emily finished surprised as the door was closed behind her.

“Careful where you say stuff like that?” Paige cautioned her.

“How is putting a door between us and the outside going to affect anything?” Emily wanted to know.

Paige glared at her. “You never know who might be listening and you never know who might be watching. Who are you?”

“Emily,” came the quick reply. “I work for Mrs. Halliwell at The Manor." She held out the package still in her hands. “Someone left this on my doorstep.”

Paige took the package from her. “Paige Matthews-Mitchell, Piper’s sister. Thank you for delivering this.” She reopened the door.

“Have you heard anything from Wyatt?” Emily asked before she took a step.

Paige froze. “What do you know about that?”

“Nate called me,” Emily informed her. Her eyes widened. “Did you not knowing anything about what’s going on at the museum?”

“Not a whole lot,” Paige announced through slightly gritted teeth. “Chris wants to handle this on his own.”

“Oh.” Emily was silent, unsure what to say.

Paige sighed and shut the door, again. “Come in and meet Prue.” She lead the way back into the front room.

Emily followed her and looked at the unfamiliar woman next to her boss.

Paige put the package down on the coffee table. “Emily, you know Piper. This is Prue.”

“Emily Colson,” Emily informed her as she held out her hand to Prue. “You can call me Em.”

Piper raised an eyebrow at that. “Prue, this is one of my employees. She’s also the reason that Chris and Wyatt weren’t able to join us a few weeks ago when we went to your place to try and come up with some way to find Phoebe and Coop.”

“Phoebe,” Emily mouthed. “That’s your other sister, isn’t it?”

Piper nodded. “Yeah, Phoebe’s the baby of the family.”

“Two years older than me,” Paige added with a laugh.

Emily frowned and looked at them confused. “You lost me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Prue instructed. “Why did you bring her in, Paige? We’re kind of busy here.”

“Emily knows something about Wyatt, so I thought she might be able to help,” Paige suggested.

“Well, I can call Nate,” Emily offered, “but I don’t know that I can do much more than that. Don’t you want to see what’s inside the package?”

Piper looked down at the package on the table. She frowned when she noticed her name on it. “This was delivered to you?”

Emily nodded. “Someone put it on my front porch and ran, I guess, because no one was there when I opened the door.”

“Why deliver it to your house instead of here?” Piper wondered aloud.

“Open it and find out,” Prue suggested picking it up and handing it to Piper.

“It says fragile,” Piper warned grabbing it. “We should be careful with it.” She placed the package back down on the table and sat down on the couch in front of it. “Back away in case it’s bad.”

“In that case, I’m opening it,” Prue protested trying to pick it up.

Piper stopped her hand. “No. It has my name on it. You are not going to do anything to risk yourself.”

“I’m a . . .” Prue looked at Emily.

“She knows,” Piper assured her. “Chris used the truth spell on her.”

Prue winced. “Yeah, that never goes well,” she commented remembering using the spell on Andy to see how he took he being a witch.

Emily looked at her surprised.

“You find out things you don’t want to know,” Paige added, remembering using it on her own boyfriend only to learn he was married. That had ended fast.

“Really?” Emily looked at them both. “Cause I thought it was interesting. Though it’s clear Chris has a lot of dark secrets.”

The three sisters looked at each other, Prue with a little bit of confusion.

“I told you Chris did some time traveling and changed his future, right?” Piper asked Prue.

Prue shook her head. “Nope.”

“Oh.” Piper considered this. “Well, he did and back in January that Chris combined with my Chris, so my Chris has his memories as well. There’s a lot we don’t know about that time line, but we know it was bad.”

Emily nodded. “That explains what he said about losing a lot of people to his brother.”

“He said that?” Piper stared at her amazed.

Emily nodded, again. “I don’t think wanted to. It was the spell. We both said things that we didn’t plan to. I told him, and the other three, things I hadn’t planned to, stuff I really wasn’t supposed to share, but I guess that’s the price I pay for agreeing. He sounds kind of tortured about it all. So what’s in the package?”

“Right.” Piper pulled her attention away from what Emily was saying and looked down at the package. She opened the flap, surprised to find no tape holding it closed. She pulled it all the way opened and found a stopped up potion vial laying in a lot of tissue paper to keep it from moving. She picked it up and looked at the small amount of blue liquid inside.

“That does not look good,” Paige commented.

“No kidding.” Piper took the tissues out and revealed a folded piece of paper at the bottom she lifted this out and unfolded it. She read the typed note aloud.

“Dear Mrs. Halliwell,

“I am sorry for the necessity of this, but it was the only way to protect someone I love. A demon approached me yesterday and threatened someone if I did not obey. Had I turned them down, they would have found someone else. I am sure you believe you could have dealt with it, but I am not so sure. And I am not willing to risk that.

“I have dealt with the demon, but I do not believe that he was working for himself. In fact he stated that he was working for someone and had reported back to them. Therefore anything following this should be seen as the extraordinary efforts of the Halliwell witches, the Charmed Ones. I do not believe there is a demon out there that truly would doubt that you are capable of bringing back the powers of someone.

“I did give Christopher the stripping potion, but I altered it in hopes that you could undo it. I am including a portion of the potion with this note in hopes that you will be able test it and find some way to use it to find some sort of antidote or cure. I have also included a copy of the spell I used to alter the potion. I am unsure about you, but I have seen stripping potions before. They were not blue. That might be important.

“This is not my war. I do not appreciate being forced into it and so I prefer to remain anonymous. I hope that you are able to use this to find a way to reverse the potions effects, but if you do not, I will not lose sleep over it.”

Piper frowned and flipped over the paper. On the back she saw only the words of the spell in careful block print letters. What was planned, shall not last. A chance not had in the past, shall be given the one who hast, the cunning to reverse this cast. Piper looked up at her sisters and Emily. “That’s it other than a spell on the other side. It doesn’t give us a whole lot to work with, but it’s a whole lot more than we had before.” She turned her attention to Emily. “I know you want to help and I appreciate that. That’s not what I need you to do, though. I need you to tell us everything you know about Wyatt’s situation and then see if you can get an update of any sort by calling . . . Nate, was it?”

Emily nodded.

“After that, I need you to go home,” Piper told her. “This is dangerous business and you shouldn’t deal with it unless you have the ability to do so. You don’t.”

“I can learn,” Emily offered. She looked at the three women around her and shook her head. “Clearly not today though. What do you want to know?”

[Chrisaholic]

Well, at least they have a direction to go to with the poison and spell. Emily can be their link to Wyatt and the museum but how will they help Chris if he's always busy?

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 25, 2017 9:21:29 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Well, at least they have a direction to go to with the poison and spell. Emily can be their link to Wyatt and the museum but how will they help Chris if he's always busy?

On that note, why don't I show you what Chris is up to.

---

Chapter Nineteen – Let the Darkness Speak

“Any idea how much farther we have to go?” Chris asked Brianna, trying to look around for her. Considering it was pitch black that was difficult, but he could sense her and that caused him to stop. “I can sense you.”

“Good for you,” Brianna retorted. “I can hear you. What’s your point?” she asked as she felt along the wall in the dark.

“It’s a power,” Chris informed him. “If my powers have been stripped, why can I use it?”

Brianna stopped. “That’s an interesting question. Why didn’t you notice before?”

“I guess the darkness forced me to use it,” Chris commented. “I kind of forgot I had it.”

“Any other abilities you forgot you had?”

Chris thought about it and nodded. He chuckled as he realized there was no way she could see him. “Yes, actually there is, but there’s no way for me to know if it works here.”

“I guess most powers would be difficult to test here,” she admitted. “What’s the power?”

“Invisibility,” he informed her dead pan.

She whipped around to stare in his general direction and burst out laughing. “Yeah, that would be kind of impossible to tell. Anything else?”

“I don’t think so,” he decided. “How much farther do you think we have?”

“Could be five feet or five miles,” she admitted. “I have no way of knowing. There’s no light at the end of this tunnel.”

Chris snorted and went back to walking in silence.

“You’re ignoring me, aren’t you?” her voice asked from behind him.

“And why not?” he replied. “You have very poor jokes.”

“It wasn’t a joke,” she protested.

“Are you sure we need this moss?”

“Of course I’m sure,” she retorted. “It’s not as if I like the idea of trudging through the dark for untold periods of time. I rather like sunlight, thank you very much.”

“Some demon you make,” he shot back.

“I’m not a demon,” she threw back. “I am a witch who had a warlock mother. And since warlocks are merely an evil form of witch, don’t call me a demon.”

“I thought all of you were part demon.”

“All but me,” she informed him. “Max is part Snake demon, part something else. Toby’s part Scabber demon. Aka’s part Grimlock. CT’s part . . . well, honestly, I’m not sure about him either. I think it’s something rather more unique than the other three, though. I’ve never actually seen his natural demon power, so I don’t know what it is.”

“And how is it that he has unnatural demon powers?” Chris asked, bemused. “That’s just kind of weird.”

“I guess that’s because he . . . I’m not really clear on that either, but something about the powers of another demon being put into him. That can happen through blood transfusions and power stealing athemés and the like.”

Chris nodded. “I see. Well, not really, but I understand what you are saying.”

Brianna smirked at that. “Yeah, I guess neither of us really sees any . . . Ouch!” she cried out as she smacked into a wall. “I think we found it,” she informed him as she pulled out a plastic bag.

“Great,” he replied with definite enthusiasm. “Now we just collect it and walk all the way back down this tunnel until you can get us out of here.”

She pulled some moss off the wall and sealed it in the baggy. She handed the baggy to Chris. “Let’s get going then. We have a long walk in front of us.”

“Where to next?” Chris asked as he packed away the baggy.

“Somewhere less pleasant than this,” she informed him before adding, “but at least we’ll be able to see.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Chris commented, trying not to think what might be less pleasant than being completely unable to see.

[Chrisaholic]

Interesting conversations in the dark but at least, one power is back but the darkness always helps here, I guess. Hope they can find all ingredients needed, fast and in time.

[StoryGirl83]

Feb 26, 2017 7:05:18 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Interesting conversations in the dark but at least, one power is back but the darkness always helps here, I guess. Hope they can find all ingredients needed, fast and in time.

Speaking of fast, let's take a look at what's going on back at the museum.

---

Chapter Twenty – Suicidal Women, Locked Doors, and Sister’s Calls

Nate back against the wall and breathed very slowly. He stared across the room at the door, trying to keep his heart from pounding in tune with the banging on the door. He could hear his cell phone ringing in his pocket and debated whether or not to answer it. Ultimately it stopped ringing before he could decided.

“I know you’re in there!” the voice of a young woman yelled. “Come out now!”

He shook his head, but didn’t say a word. She might think she knew he was in there, but the truth was, she probably didn’t. If he didn’t say anything hopefully she would decide that she was wrong. He was suddenly very thankful to Wyatt Halliwell for telling him to lock the door. He didn’t know what was going on out there, but clearly there was something bad going on.

“Open that door!” yelled the voice in the hall. “The light’s are flickering. I can see the blood, so much blood.”

She sounded terrified, but there was no way Nate was opening that door. He didn’t know who she was and he didn’t know what she might do to him. It struck him as odd that he was afraid of a girl, but he supposed a girl could do just as much damage as any man might if she had the right tools, some even without tools. And this one sounded a little crazy.

“They said he made it,” she mumbled, the banging on the door more rhythmic now, as if she was rocking back and forth against it rather than banging on it with her fists. “They said he made it. They said he made it. They said he made it.” She wailed loudly, causing Nate to jump. “But I can see him. Why can I see him? So much blood. So much blood.”

Another wail and Nate was covering his ears. He didn’t know what was going on, but he didn’t know how much more of this he could handle.

“Let me in,” the woman begged. “The light’s are flickering. There’s a body on the floor. So much blood. I hate blood. Please, let me in. Please!”

Nate shook his head and looked over at the window. Two stories down. He wondered what his chances would be if he tried to climb down. He suspected they wouldn’t be good so he backed away from the window with a sigh.

“I can’t take this anymore,” the woman moaned. “I have to get out of here.”

He heard the pounding of footsteps as they got farther and farther away. He didn’t want to think what she might be up to, or what she might do. He was just glad she was gone and hoped this nightmare would end soon. Nate sat down against the wall and took several deep breaths. This was way out of his league.

Several minutes passed before Nate felt safe getting away from the wall. He knew there was no way he could get back to work so he opened his cell phone and checked his missed calls. He smiled at the sight of his sister’s name on the ID.

“How are you doing in there?” Wyatt asked from the other side of the door.

“Fine,” Nate announced. “Or as fine as one can be with people banging on the door wanting in.”

“You didn’t let anyone in, did you?” Wyatt asked, concern in his voice.

“No.”

Wyatt sighed. “Good.” He paced a moment in front of the door before continuing. “I need you to do me a favor. And before you do anything else I need you to know I am infected.”

Nate gulped. “So you definitely weren’t earlier?”

“I definitely wasn’t earlier,” Wyatt agreed.

“And now that you are you want something from me?” Nate asked just to be clear.

“Yes,” he agreed, “because now I know the seriousness of it and I know time is short.”

“Now you know how serious it is?” Nate asked sarcastically. “Now that you are infected?”

Wyatt sighed. “I got infected while stopping one of my friends from killing himself.”

Nate didn’t respond at once. “I don’t know of any disease that makes one suicidal. Besides, that girl in the hallway didn’t seem suicidal. All that screaming and yelling and banging on the door, she seemed more homicidal.”

Wyatt glanced down at where the unconscious Olivia Tunnels lay. “That girl in the hallway almost didn’t survive. For someone who hated blood she’d found a pretty bloody way to attempt to off herself.”

Nate gulped. “She tried to kill himself?” he questioned. “I knew she was crazy.”

“Not crazy,” Wyatt corrected through the door. “Scared, paranoid, depressed, but fully sane. Now about that favor. Will you listen?”

Thinking of what he had gone through as the girl had banged on his door and all the thoughts that had gone through his head, he knew that he needed to trust this man. “I’ll listen.”

“I need to talk to someone on the outside and it might help us to get out of here.”

“I don’t see how.”

“You don’t need to,” Wyatt informed him. “You just have to do as I ask, no questions asked.”

“What do you need from me?” Nate asked, look out the window, wondering, again what his chances were.

“I need to borrow your cell phone,” Wyatt informed him. “The thing is, I don’t know if I can give it back.”

“Well, why wouldn’t you be able to give it back?” Nate wanted to know.

“Maybe when this is all over,” Wyatt offered, “if Nathan doesn’t break it, too. I’ll buy you another if I need to.”

Nate looked down at his phone and his sister’s number listed there. “My sister just tried to call me,” he announced, not sure where he was going with it, “but she was trying to contract you wasn’t she?”

Wyatt raised his eyebrows in surprised. “I don’t know. I really don’t know Emily all that well.”

“All the same, I think she was trying to call you,” Nate informed him. “Call her. Find out why she called.”

“I will,” Wyatt assured him. “I am infected,” he reminded Nate, “and I don’t know the cure or even if there is one, so slip the phone out the door, close the door, and relock it before getting away from the door. Tell me when you are away from it.”

“How contagious is this thing?” Nate wanted to know.

“I don’t know,” Wyatt admitted. “I know it transmits by touch, because that’s how Nathan got infected and how he infected Andrew and me.”

“And the girl?”

Wyatt shook his head, despite the fact that Nate couldn’t see him. “I don’t know. My guess is that she came in contact with one of them while I was talking to you, but I don’t know.”

“If these people are suicidal and you’re infected too . . .”

Wyatt bit his lip. “I haven’t gotten there yet. I know what they are feeling. I know they’re scared. I know a lot of things about what’s going on with them. What I don’t know is how bad, because I’m not there? I don’t want to be there. I want to get past it. I want to find a way to solve this before it gets to that point. And to do that, I think I need to talk to some people on the outside.”

Nate sighed. “Step away from the door. I’m bringing the phone out.”

“Done.”

Nate walked over to the door slowly. He unlocked it and pulled open the door. He was Wyatt knelt down next to a blond girl who lay unconscious on the floor. Despite what Wyatt had said about her choosing a bloody way to off herself, he saw no evidence of blood. He pushed back the thought and placed his phone on the floor. He straightened and closed the door, locking it once again. He walked back to the window before he said anything. “You think there’s a way to get us out of here alive. Do it.”

Outside the door Wyatt picked up the phone and pushed it into his pocket. He scooped up the unconscious Olivia and head down the hall. Considering how far gone she was, he couldn’t leave her alone and there was no way he was letting Nate Colson in on his conversation. Chris might trust Nate’s little sister, and maybe Wyatt was beginning to trust her, too, but Nate wasn’t his sister and Wyatt knew nothing about him. He reached one of the offices down the hall and lay Olivia down on the carpet. Then, he pulled out the cell and found the last number dialed. He hit call and waited.

“Nate, I was getting worried,” Emily announced over the phone. “What took you so long?”

“I’m not Nate,” Wyatt informed her.

“No, you’re not,” Emily agreed, concern in her voice. “Who is this and why do you have my brother’s cell?”

“You’re brother is fine,” Wyatt assured her. “He agreed to let me borrow his phone, so I can talk to people outside of here.”

“Who is this though?”

“I’m hurt that you don’t know my voice,” he teased, “but then I guess that proves what I told you’re brother, we don’t really know each other all that well. This is Wyatt Halliwell.”

[Chrisaholic]

Very complicated thing here - with the infection and communication around. Let's hope Wyatt can Emily tell what he needs and if she can contact his brother. Complicated, really. lol