Charmed: Heritage – 117 – Something In the Water

[StoryGirl83]

Aug 25, 2017 13:35:08 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Interesting, very interesting. Hope all will be good.

I guess we'll have to see, both of us. I have plans, but I have not actually completed this story. I have a few more completed chapters, but I have not resolved everything in that chapter.

---

Chapter Twenty-Nine - War Room

10:53 AM

"Does it bother you that in order to stop this we may have to kill your sister?" Hank asked Simon looking at his own sister. "And your father?"

Simon shook his head. "Rachel and I may share the same blood, but she is no sister of mine. Only Sarah has and deserves that title. As for William Richmond, he may be the best of them as my mother claimed, but he is no less evil, only less sadistic. Do what you must."

"Tell your mom I'll be fine here, kids," Henry advised them.

Alanna nodded. "Be careful, Dad. Nonmagical crimes can be just as deadly to stop as magical ones."

"An adult offender can be just as scary or scarier than the kids," Hank added with a laugh at his sister. "But you know that."

"Get back to your mom," Henry ordered them. "And don't let anyone see you orb, son. The last think we need is magic getting exposed on top of everything else going on."

"You can orb?" Simon looked at him surprised. "But I thought . . ." He looked at Henry confused.

Henry shrugged. "My father-in-law is a whitelighter. Well, the one I get to see more than once every three or four years is."

"Just how many do you have?" Simon asked bemused.

"Two," Henry informed him, waving the kids out. "My wife's . . ."

That was the last the two heard of their dad's explanation as the door shut behind them. They walked back into the hall in almost silence, stopping briefly to greet one of Henry's long time colleagues. As soon as they were sure no one could see them Alanna wrapped her arms around her brother's neck and Hank orbed them out of there.

---

Jani had taken to pacing the attic. Other than a blaze of fire out in the yard earlier that hadn’t caused any issues, it had been quite, far too quite. The only people left in the manor with her were Hope, who was sound asleep in one of the bedrooms on the second floor, and Chris, who was equally sound asleep on the couch behind her. Not surprisingly, she hadn’t had much in the way of conversation in a while.

She'd exhausted any chance that there was any more info on this in the Book of Shadows and had found no new evidence that anyone other than the person she'd sent Ladybug after knew even the remotest information about any of this. It was all so frustrating and to top it off Charles had just called to tell her Lindsey Mayne, a good friend of hers from school, had just been diagnosed with "witch's fever".

As if she needed more stress.

She jerked to a stop as the air in front of her shimmered and turned into Seth with a woman lying on the ground in front of him.

"Seth!" she glared at him. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Sorry," he said absently as he glanced around the room and heaved a sigh of relief. "Where is everyone?"

"Never mind that," she snapped. "Who's sleeping beauty?"

"A warlock," he informed her. "An hour ago, she attacked your aunt Prue with another warlock. Your aunt asked me to find some place to stash her. I thought the back room in P3 would work, but I met with a little trouble trying to get here. It’s like a haze out there and my shimmering powers wouldn’t let me go more than a few dozen miles at a time.”

Jani’s eyes widened at the last words, but he waved her off. “Don’t worry, I finally figured it out, something else in the water is trying to ground everyone, smart, I guess, if you don’t have an ability to transport yourself places, but ultimately an easy fix. They must have added it along with whatever they did to erase all records. It got thinner the further away from the east coast I got and eventually it was just gone. I tested it and I can go that way easier than I can leave it, so that’s probably where most of them are holed up.” Glancing at the warlock on the ground, he added, “That’s certainly where she was. While it did take longer than I wanted, I’ve got it covered, so I shouldn’t have any problems now. The return trip should be quick, but before I go I need some place to lock her up. Is Chris awake yet?"

"Chris?" Jani glanced over at the couch and shook her head. "See for yourself, but don't bother him. We can make a crystal cage. That should hold her."

He shrugged. "Works for me. How does that work?"

She eyed him curiously as if she was trying to figure out if he was serious or not. Deciding he was she marched off to some cupboards to get what she needed. "I'm rather amazed you don't know any of this stuff."

"I'm a manticore, Jani, not a witch," he reminded her. "And Dad's decidedly not magical. Not much chance to learn."

"There's always Aunt Piper," she offered as she began created a circle of crystals around Jessica. She was just putting down the last crystal when blue and white orbs filled the air and turned into her brother and sister. "Dad okay?"

Alanna nodded. "His boss is a warlock. That's how he knew to protect his staff."

Jani's eyes snapped up to look at her twin. "Excuse me."

"Simon Richmond, Dad's boss is a nearly four-hundred-year-old warlock. Who's that?"

"Warlock," Jani told her. "Seth knows more than I do. You left Dad alone with a warlock?"

"His story made sense," Alanna informed her with a shrug.

"But you left Dad alone with a warlock," Jani repeated.

"Not all warlock's are evil," Alanna informed her.

"They are by the very definition of the word, evil witches," Jani hissed.

"Not exactly," Alanna shook her head. "Grant you a great deal more warlocks are evil then are good, but there are a few out there who by birth are warlocks and raised to be good. Remember that story Aunt Prue told us a couple weeks ago about the warlock priest she, Aunt Piper, and Aunt Phoebe helped. He was good despite being a warlock. And he's still good, if you recall, despite still being a warlock."

"That's . . . that's . . ."

"Don't worry," Hank interrupted. "I had 'Lanna cast a temporary offensive bind on him. He can only use his powers to defend for twenty-four hours. I don't think it'll be an issue, but we asked and he agreed. He's been there for three years and he's done a lot of good during that time. He understood my apprehension through and since I wasn't trying to keep him from having magic at all and I wasn't trying to do anything permanent, he was willing to let us do that."

"Why not let you bind them completely, since it was only for a day?" Jani asked confused.

"Because his family's behind this," Alanna informed her. "His mom was pregnant with him and his twin sister, Sarah, when this all started, and she didn’t stick around once she found out, so he’s a warlock, but a good one, raised by his mother alone. He’s William’s son, Willamina Richmond’s grandson. Here,” she held out a piece of crumpled paper she had stuffed in her pocket, “I took notes.” She looked thoughtfully at Jessica. "I wonder if she's related. Her name wouldn't happen to be Hannah would it?"

Jani took the paper and started skimming it.

"Jessica, I think," Seth announced. "At least that's what Prue said the other warlock called her."

"Jessica Michaels," Hank finished. "That would make her the youngest child of Deputy Chief Richmond's oldest aunt, Marie Michaels. She was one of the thirteen who cast the spell that started this. She was . . . four I think at the time."

Seth blinked and stared down at Jessica. "Seems cruel to involve a four-year-old."

"Deputy Chief Richmond's older sister, Rachel, was two and they involved her," Hank informed him. "He said there were seven children all under ten. Jessica had or has an older sister, Miriam, who was seven, and an older brother, Oliver, who was six."

"He's dead," Seth announced.

Hank raised an eyebrow. "Who? Oliver Michaels?"

Seth nodded. "He was the one smothering the sick at the hospitals on the east coast."

Hank grimaced. "So that's at least stopped?"

"Your aunt's pretty impressive,” Seth told him, a look of admiration in his eyes.

“I get the idea she’s scary if you cross her,” Hank agreed. “She kind of had to be.”

“How’s she holding up?”

Seth turned to look at Alanna and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. She’s a stranger to me, ‘Lanna, and she’s not showing any emotion that I can read.” He sighed. “Look, if you don’t need me here, then I need to get going. I’ve been gone for an hour and I still haven’t updated her on the situation. I got to the hospital and her daughters were in the hospital room without her. She had been gone a while and they were worried.”

“Tension is high right now,” Hank pointed out, “especially for people on the East Coast where so much death has already happened.” He knew from talking to his cousins that they were both scared. And he knew from talking to his mom that despite her resolve to end this, things weren’t looking good.

“I’m going to go check on Hope,” Alanna announced suddenly. “Hank’s been awake for a while and maybe she just hasn’t come up here.” She didn’t wait for anyone to respond and headed down the stairs.

“On that note, I’d best get going like I said,” Seth reminded them. “I’ll be back after I update your aunt.” With that the air shimmered around him and he was gone.

“And then there were two,” Jani said with a slight laugh.

“Four,” Hank corrected, indicating their sleeping cousin on the couch and the unconscious warlock in the crystal cage.

“They don’t count as long as they aren’t awake,” she shrugged.

Hank shook his head with a slight laugh. “Whatever you say, sis.” He grabbed the Book of Shadows off the podium and walked over to an empty spot on the floor.

Jani stuck her tongue out at him. “How have been you doing with everything going on?”

“Ask me when it’s done,” Hank requested as he sat down on the floor with the Book of Shadows and some paper.

“I already looked through the Book.”

Hank shrugged. “So did I . . . twice. I always learn something new.”

“I sure hope Mom and Cilly learning more than we are,” Jani commented as she began to pace, again. “It seems like everywhere we turn it’s dead ends.”

“I don’t know about that,” Hank shook his head as he turned another page. “I think with every step we learn something new and every new thing we learn is one step closer to the answer.”

“Maybe.”

“We’re going to figure this out, Jani.”

“Are we?” She sighed as she stopped pacing to look at him. “Even if we do, will it be in time for Uncle Andy? Will it be in time for Uncle Leo and for Seth’s little brother. Will anyone be left to save?”

Hank was silent, no answer forthcoming.

“Yeah.” She sighed, again, and resumed her pacing.

Pink and white hearts began to fill the air and Jani breathed a sigh of relief. A slight frown tugged at her lips as she realized no orb bubbles joined it. When Ladybug began to materialize she chuckled. How could she have forgotten her? “What took so long?”

“Franki’s too cautious by far,” Ladybug informed her as she handed Jani a piece of paper. “I’ll tell you about it later. Where’s everyone else?” she asked looking around the room and finding only Hank sitting quietly with the Book of Shadows and Chris asleep on the couch. Her eyebrow shot up at the sight of Jessica, but she didn’t comment.

“Lanna went to check on Hope,” Jani told her, “and Cilly went with Mom to check out a lead.” She picked up the paper and scanned it. “So what is this?”

“Something we don’t want to say aloud unless we are out of options,” Ladybug grimaced, “but it might be helpful in finding the spell we want. The witch we summoned said he thought that if we could manage to vanquish the head witch or warlock rather, and free her sacrifice from their connection to the spell, we should be able to make the spell at the bottom work, but to even attempt it we need more magical umph then those who cast it originally did.”

“Magical umph?” Jani giggled. “What kind of phrase is that?”

“Knock it off,” Ladybug scowled. Switching the subject she asked, “How’s your dad?”

“Would you believe he works for a warlock?”

“What?!” Ladybug’s eyes were wide as she looked at her cousin stunned.

“Yeah, that’s what I said,” Jani agreed. “It’s pretty strange. Seems his boss was in his mother’s womb when all this happened and when they cast the spell it affected the entire family including Dad’s boss. His mom found out her husband was involved and she ran, raised twins on her own.”

“And his solution was water bottles?” Ladybug looked at Jani skeptically. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Jani agreed. “Crazy, right? According to him, he tired to warn people,” she glanced down at the paper in her hands, “in 1767. That’s why so few died according to him, but his cousin, Hannah, didn’t like it. She cast a spell on him, and his sister, just in case, to make it so they could only talk about it if directly asked.”

Ladybug shook her head in amazement. “Weird, but that matches with what I was told. The ghost I talked to, he lived in Duxbury when this started.”

“When it started?” Jani asked surprised. “Are you sure of that.”

“1637,” Ladybug confirmed. “His name is Kirkland Owen and he ended up with the orphans from two Duxbury families, the Kensingtons and the Warrens, five kids in all.”

“Warrens?” Jani’s eyes widened as she looked at her cousin in surprise. “As in this guy raised an ancestor of ours?”

Ladybug nodded. “Sam Warren, the youngest of the five children, was Melinda Warren's father.”

“I could have told you that,” Hank informed her. “Melinda talks about him, although mostly in the abstract since she never knew him. According to Melinda, her father and his brother disappeared without a trace. Some time later, months, years, it’s unclear, her Aunt Anne announced that she was moving out west.”

“I missed that,” Jani mumbled to herself. “How did I miss that? Hank, I didn’t see anything about Melinda even having an Aunt Anne or any relatives beyond her mom for that matter. I read that book, the entire thing. I’m sure I did. Where on earth did you find that information?”

---

The next few chapters were an absolute disaster to coordinate. I had written multiple versions of the same thing and they all had pieces I liked, but those pieces didn't easily fit, so I had to piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was tricky. For the title of the next chapter I channeled my inner L. Frank Baum or maybe the writer of the Wizard of Oz screenplay. You may or may not recall that one of the reasons they are so sure that this is supernatural (and of course they now how plenty of proof of that) was because no one magical was sick. Well, the title of the next chapter is "Ding Dong! The Witch Is Sick!"

Oh, and just because I feel like it, above, they mention Simon's sister, Rachel, a few times. She was the one in the last chapter. And there is way more going on there than it seems on the surface. Also, do not. I repeat, do not, get a cupid mad.

[Chrisaholic]

With all those names, is it a wonder if you don't get a headache? Anyway, I bet the Halliwells take now all chances they get, no matter what happens then. If there's only one hope, they'll take it.

[StoryGirl83]

Aug 26, 2017 9:28:34 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

With all those names, is it a wonder if you don't get a headache? Anyway, I bet the Halliwells take now all chances they get, no matter what happens then. If there's only one hope, they'll take it.

Okay, I admit, for the parts that I had to redo, I had to write down who all was actually there, so that I didn't have someone talking who wasn't *cough, cough* Seth *cough, cough*. That was actually part of the problem. I can't remember how I resolved it, only that I did and it worked.

---

Chapter Thirty - Ding Dong! The Witch Is Sick!

10:50 AM

The lives of the Charmed Ones and their families were so full of noise and distractions that if someone had the time and the patience to stand by quietly and watch, they could easily slip through unnoticed. One such watcher had been around for years with no one the wiser, but today he found the need to break the barrier of invisibility if just a little.

Knowing this and doing this, however, were two entirely different things and the watcher was off to a rough start. The last few days had been some of the most tiring he had ever gone through and he’d been through a lot in his life. He rubbed his forehead, trying to ward away the headache that seemed to be coming. Most likely it was some after effect of his complete lack of sleep over the last few days.

At least he hoped it was. If he was getting an allergic reaction to another type of magical travel, then he was just going to quit when this was all over. Considering where he lived, the only way he was getting anywhere was if he used magical transportation and his body already violently objected to at least two forms of magical transportation.

At least he didn’t have to worry much about demons following him here. Not only would they be idiots to do so, especially right now, it seemed that someone had managed to lock most of them in the underworld. Unlike Up There were travel was just straight out not happening, any demon in the underworld when this started was grounded. Entrance into the underworld was doable, a bad idea when you considered all the very annoyed demons stuck there, but definitely doable. Someone hadn’t wanted interference from that corner either, but apparently they had wanted to be able to get in there themselves, so they had done things differently.

Getting his bearings, he pressed himself up against the side of the house just in case someone had seen his grand entrance. Heaving in several deep breaths he waited until his legs were no longer jello and turned to face the house in front of him.

The Halliwell Manor towered in front of him and he could just barely make out movement up in the attic, so that was where he probably had to go. He was here for one reason and one reason only.

They trusted him a little, but not enough for this. The information he was going to give them would spell death for someone and that wasn’t the kind of thing you trusted a mere acquaintance with.

Still something about the look in Charles Chambers’ eyes when he’d accosted the watcher told him that Charles was dead serious. Another day and that might well be just plain dead since Charles was just as sick with what he called “Aunt Elisa’s stupid revenge plan” as the millions of other people on the planet who were infected.

Twenty years previous Charles has chosen to find a way to make himself mortal. He’d given up both his immortality and his magic and that was supposed to include his own family’s ability to track him down.

If only it had.

The watcher gulped recalling the nearly delirious Charles’ description of the visit his cousin, Hannah, had paid on him with her little sister, Deborah. While Deborah had held Charles, his wife, and two daughters immobile with just a thought and the motions of her hand, Hannah had headed for the tap.

---

May 2, 2027

"You know what we do to traitors?" Hannah asked as she filled the tumbler to the brim.

"Hannah, please," Charles begged. "They've nothing to do with this."

"No!" Hannah shouted. "They have everything to do with this. You left because of this filth." She spat in Kelly, Charles' wife's, face. "Do they even know what you are, Charles? Does this sleeper know what she married?"

"I told her about my past," Charles assured Hannah. He turned pleading eyes toward Deborah. "Deb, talk some sense into her. I never told anyone about . . . any of this. I told Kelly what I was. I never told her about this."

"Not good enough, Cousin," Hannah gave him a look of pure malice. "Deb, who's first?"

Deb made a slow motion with her free hand and Charles watched helplessly as his younger daughter, Izzy's, mouth opened and her head tilted back.

"The baby, huh?" Hannah took the tumbler in her hand and poured some down his little daughter's throat.

Charles couldn't even open his mouth in protest.

Hannah looked him in the eye and grinned maliciously at him. "Deb, the little very *friendly* person who married our cousin next."

Deb made the same slow motions with her hand and Charles was forced to watch as Hannah approached his wife and poured water down her waiting throat. Try as he might he couldn't even look away. Deb's manipulation forced him to watch as Hannah slowly poured water down Kelly's throat and then without comment his older daughter, Kara's throat as well.

As soon as the last drops fell down Kara's throat Charles felt mobility return to his head. He didn't know if he wanted to cry or scream, but one thought forced it's way to the front. Jason! His son would be home any minute and while his wife and daughters were as good as dead, his son was not.

Then, he noticed Hannah was back at the tap. She filled the tumbler and walked over to Charles. "Why don't we find out just how completely you rid yourself of your magic, cousin?" As she poured the cool liquid down his throat she added, "You wanted mortality, Charles. Well, now you've got it."

Once the last drop had slid down Charles' throat Hannah put the tumbler on the palm of her hand a touched it. It turned to ash at her touch. "Never leave fingerprints. Right, Cousin?"

She started for the door and stopped. She turned around and looked at Charles. "Oh, don't think I don't know about your precious son. Say nothing and he will live. He'll be an orphan, but he'll live."

Without another word Hannah and Deb were out the door. It must have been only thirty seconds or so before Deb's hold on them broke, but to Charles it felt more like eternity. As soon as he could more he ran to the cupboard to get Ipecac, but he knew it was already in their system. It might not be in their blood, but even one drop was too much.

---

The watcher had listened to Charles’ story with half an ear. Listening would never have gotten the whole story and so the watcher had done something that had not set well with him since.

He’d reached deep into Charles’ mind and taken the story from him. And that story was why he now stood just outside the Halliwell Manor trying to figure out how to get a message to the Halliwells without letting them know who the message was from.

And that was the kicker wasn’t it? And even if it was possible how could they be convinced to trust it. It was a certainty they wouldn’t if the watcher was revealed, not soon enough anyway.

First thing, though, was to get into the house and a quick turn of the knob revealed that the house was locked. No surprise there, but he didn’t have time for locked doors, so he closed his eyes and unlocked it.

Simple as that.

If only the rest of this would be easy.

---

When I say that this family (the Richmonds) has issues. I mean it so very much. They attack their own.

[Chrisaholic]

So, more background information coming, I hope. This Charles knows the Halliwell family obviously but for how long? I'm just curious here.

[StoryGirl83]

Aug 27, 2017 6:40:23 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

So, more background information coming, I hope. This Charles knows the Halliwell family obviously but for how long? I'm just curious here.

Are you thinking the watcher is Charles? If you are, no. Charles is at home, sick, in very bad shape. This is someone else, whom I have not identified, deliberately and yes, this person does know them, really well, but they don't really know him and that's the reason why he's hesitant to identify himself.

---

Chapter Thirty-One - Insensitive

10:58 AM

Before Hank could respond to his sister’s question the attic door opened and his other sister entered.

Alanna smiled at the sight of their cousin. “Welcome back, Ladybug? Find anything?”

Ladybug shrugged. “Not a lot. Have you heard anything from my sister?”

“Hope’s downstairs asleep,” Alanna offered, glancing at Jani. “I just checked on her.”

Ladybug shook her head. “No, Jani told me that. I meant Cilly.”

“She and Mom went to meet with someone who claimed to have information about this whole mess,” Jani informed her. “I haven’t heard anything since.”

“They’re all right,” Hank announced. “They had a little rough spot and needed my help, but everyone is all right now. Well, not everyone. I mean three of the people they were talking with are dead and they had a fight with some crazy warlock and she’s dead, but Mom, Cilly, and the others they met are fine.”

“Hank!”

Looking at his sister startled, Hank asked, “What’s wrong, Jani?”

“How could you be so insensitive?”

“Insensitive? Elisa Richmond tried to kill our family. She’s psychotic. I’m not going to be sorry that she can’t hurt anyone any more.”

His sister rolled her eyes. “Fine, maybe she deserved it, maybe she didn’t. I won’t get into that, but what about the other three. You said three of the people Mom and Cilly were talking to were dead.”

Hank looked at her, frowning. “What?” Then, he smiled. “Oh, yes. That. Well, it is a shame that they are dead, but they have been dead for centuries, so it’s not as if this just happened.”

“Still insensitive.” She glared at him for a second before giving in and asking, “Just how many people did they meet with anyway?”

“Not sure, but by the time I left they were in conversations with six people including Melinda’s father.”

His sisters and his cousin gaped at him. He loved it when they actually wanted to hear some of his research. Normally, he’d draw this out, but today there wasn’t time.

“You mean to say Melinda Warren’s father’s ghost was talking to Mom?” Alanna asked with a giant grin on her face.

“We don’t know anything about him,” Jani added. “He’s kind of this giant mystery.”

“A mystery, yes,” Hank agreed, deciding he’d best start talking before they expressed more surprise, “but he’s not dead. I can’t explain it, but neither Sam Warren nor his brother, Dave, are dead. The three dead are their parents and sister, Caroline.”

“You said they vanished,” Jani commented. “Before Alanna returned, you said Melinda’s dad and his brother vanished. Are you trying to tell me they vanished from their time in order to come to our own?”

“I really don’t know,” Hank told her even though he was glad to see she had been listening earlier when he’d told her about Sam. “They are here now, but I don’t know what’s going to happen next any more than you do.”

Ladybug pulled out her phone. “I’m going to call Cilly, see if she can tell me what’s going on. I’m curious to find out what’s going on.” She swiped open her phone.

“Ladybug, that can wait,” Jani argued. “You don’t need to . . .” She stopped as she realized Ladybug wasn’t paying attention to her. “Ladybug?”

“Huh?” She looked up, almost startled. “Did you want something?”

“Is something wrong?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It’s odd. I have a voicemail from someone I haven’t heard from in a while.”

“Maybe they want to make sure you are okay with all this madness,” Jani suggested.

“No.” Ladybug shook her head. “No, he knows I’m a witch. And I think he’d have seen enough to realize that protects me.” She tapped her phone and put it to her ear. “I need to find out what he has to say.”

As Ladybug walked over to her side of the room, Jani walked over to her sister and brother. “So what do you have?”

“I have to go.”

Jani jerked her head around to look at Ladybug. “What’s going on?”

Her cousin shivered. “I don’t know, but it’s bad.” Without further explanation, she disappeared in pink and white hearts.

“Well, that was odd,” Alanna commented with a frown. “I wonder what is so important about that phone call that she would drop everything and leave when we are in the middle of trying to solve this.”

“She’ll tell us if she wants to,” Jani pointed out. “We should get back to this.”

“And what are we accomplishing?” Alanna snorted.

“Plenty. We’re learning what started this whole thing and about how people dealt with it in the past.”

“Meanwhile, thousands of people are dead and more are dying every hour.” She shook her head. “I’m going to go check the news. Maybe I’ll find something useful on that.”

“The news!” Jani spat out. “What good is that going to do us?”

Alanna shrugged. “We’ll never know until I try now will we?” Without waiting for a reply, she headed out of the attic and down the stairs.

“That went well.”

Jani glared at him. “We don’t have time for your sarcasm.”

“No, we don’t have time to argue about my sarcasm, which is not the same thing.”

She slumped against the couch Chris was sleeping on and sat down on the arm with a sigh. “I want Mom back. I don’t want to be in charge.”

Hank walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “She’ll be back soon, but you can do this. Mom’s gathering information. Ladybug has information and when she get’s back she’ll tell us what it is. Based off what Seth said, Aunt Prue has information, too. They need someone to look at that information and see how it all connects. You can do that. I have faith in your, sis.”

Looking up at him, Jani worried her lip. “And what if that’s not enough?”

[Chrisaholic]

So, nothing new on any front but there are a lot of discussion going on. There's always hope.

[StoryGirl83]

Sept 6, 2017 4:30:27 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

So, nothing new on any front but there are a lot of discussion going on. There's always hope.

No, not really anything new there. There's something new in this chapter. May or may useful, but definitely something new. You've met Oliver and Jessica. You've met Simon and his sister, Rachel. You've met Charles. You've met Hannah and Deb. Now meet Oliver and Jessica's older sister, Miriam, and kind of Simon's twin sister, Sarah.

---

Chapter Thirty-Two – Torturer or Tortured?

10:59 AM (1:59 PM in Richmond)

“Hello, Love,” the sultry blonde said as she entered the living room in only a spaghetti strap night shirt and the matching skin tight shorts. “What’re you watching?”

The dark haired man glared at her. “Don’t call me that.”

“I’ll call you whatever I like,” she snapped. “Or did you forget my trump card.”

He didn’t stop glaring, but he kept his mouth shut.

“That darling little ward of yours hasn’t a magical bone in her body, my handsome little witch,” she reminded him sweetly.

A hiss escaped his lips.

“And if that isn’t enough incentive to do what I say . . .” the sickeningly sweet look was making his stomach turn. “I do have another trump card.”

He glared at her and tried not to take the bait.

She pushed up his shirt and started drawing circles on his chest with her finger as she continued. “He screamed and begged for mercy as I broke his fingers, one by one. But you know what I enjoyed even more?”

He gulped and tried to shrink into the couch, but he didn’t say a word.

“Smashing his kneecaps in with a baseball bat,” she said a look of fond glee on her face. “My brother thought I should just end his suffering, but I made sure he survived. Oliver thinks it’s fun to just end lives. Personally I derive more pleasure from letting them live.”

He grimaced, pity for the unknown man filling him. But why was she telling him? Were these her plans for him if he continued to be uncooperative? He’d kill her first . . . if he could figure out how.

He’d put up with her torture only until he could figure out a way to protect Alexa from retaliation. Unfortunately he knew that he had no way to hide, so he had to take out Miriam and her allies all at once and he knew nothing about her allies.

Which didn’t matter anyway, since he didn’t know how to vanquish Miriam either.

“After his knees I thought it would be fun to break his ribs,” Miriam continued. “I didn’t want to kill him, so I had my brother do it. After two broken ribs, I made him stop. Watching is such a bore.”

He grimaced. This poor man.

“Are you listening, Mark?” she demanded of him.

He nodded.

“Speak when I ask you a question.”

“I’m listening.”

“Good.” The sickeningly sweet voice was back. “Now, are you enjoying my description of my playing with your best friend?”

Mark sucked in a breath so hard it hurt. Josh? She had Josh? Josh was alive?

“Oh, good,” she smiled. “I have your attention. It’s so rare that I have your undivided attention.

He fought the urge to try and strangle her. She had Josh. She’d probably had Josh for the entire two years he’d been missing, long before she ever forced her way into Mark’s life. Who knew what that could have done to his best friend, especially considering how badly Miriam claimed to have treated him.

He had to remain calm. More was at stake here then he realized. He had to find a way to get her to tell him where Josh was. The time for waiting for an opportunity was up. He couldn’t afford to wait any longer. Josh needed him.

Noticing Miriam was silent, he looked up. Her full attention was focused on the muted TV he’d been watching. He looked at the subtitles confused, but nothing jumped out at him. What had grabbed her attention so full?

“Oliver!” she growled and then to his shock she was gone.

Oliver? Why did that name sound so familiar?

---

11:04 AM (2:04 PM in Noble)

Jason Chambers replaced the warm washcloth on his sister's forehead. He dipped the new one in cold bottled water. He'd been stunned when he realized his father's most important rule about never drinking water from the tap was actually a matter of life and death.

Kara Chambers moaned as the cold washcloth touched her forehead. "Haven't given up yet, Jace?"

"Not going to," the thirteen-year-old informed her. "I can't believe you're all going to die. I won't."

"Dad said . . ."

"I don't care," Jace scowled. "You're still stage three and we aren't going to let you get any worse. Got that?"

"Izzy's stage four now?" Kara caught on to what he didn't say.

He sighed. "You're all going to make it, Kar. I won't let you die."

"I don't think you have a say in it," she gave him a woeful look.

Jace swiped away a tear that threatened to fall from his eyes. Boys didn't cry, especially not in front of their older sisters.

"Have you told anyone yet?"

He shook his head. "Dad said if you wanted to go to the hospital you could, but unless you said you wanted to or I thought you should, it was my call. Kar, two-thirds of the town is dead, not dying, dead. Anyone who isn't is just as sick as you are or worse. There is no hospital, not really. The staff is in the same condition as the rest of the town, probably worse since apparently coffee is a favorite drink for late nights and boiling water doesn't eliminate curses like it eliminates germs."

"I don't suppose I have to ask about Jared," Kara wheezed.

That brought a tiny laugh from her brother's lips. "Actually I found him. Dad apparently kidnapped him. He's in Honolulu."

Kara's pale eyebrows shot up.

"It was the farthest Dad could send him without a passport," Jace retorted.

"So he's fine?"

Jace nodded. "According to him he'd listened to Dad's water bottle edict, too, so it looks like he is completely unaffected . . . physically. Told me he got a really strange look the first day after he woke up when he went down to the store and bought a month's worth of bottled water. He said he felt really silly about it, too, until someone on twitter started claiming this was spread through the water earlier today."

"Does that put you in danger?" Kara asked worried.

"I don't think so," Jace shrugged. "No sign of 'dear cousin' Hannah, so I think we're safe. Or as safe as we can be."

But how safe was that really?

---

2:16 AM (2:16 PM in Boston)

Miriam had stalked the halls only fifteen minutes before she had gotten a pretty good idea of what happened. Or as good as she was going to get without interrogating the monster who had killed her brother in cold blood. To make things worse, there was no sign of her sister either and Jessica always followed Oliver. Had she lost both of them?

Figuring she’d get a better idea of what was going on outside, she spent the last ten minutes pacing the crowd, looking for a lead. Was Oliver’s killer here?

She ignored the reporter who was busy vilifying Oliver, saying he shouldn’t have been suffocating people. They were going to die anyway. Why not let him have his fun?

She swept the crowd, again, and stopped. Watching silently in the shadows she saw a familiar face. She scowled.

Sarah.

Was Sarah here to watch the carnage? Or had she led it? Sarah had always hated them.

---

I've only got one more completed chapter. Once we get there, then I will update as I write them. I hit a problem snag a while back, so it brought things to a crawl. I'm pasased that (I think), but I kind of lost writing momentum. I have a lot of partially written chapters that I need to flush out. The next chapter is called, "Bunny."

[Chrisaholic]

You know, with all these names and who plays what role, you can certainly lost overview here, so to speak. If you can keep your head clear, I can't. lol Sorry, just hope that the end will be good. A happy end would always be nice.

[StoryGirl83]

Sept 9, 2017 9:01:38 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

You know, with all these names and who plays what role, you can certainly lost overview here, so to speak. If you can keep your head clear, I can't. lol Sorry, just hope that the end will be good. A happy end would always be nice.

I guess that's what I get for having so many villains and victims, all of them needed a little face time. Sorry to confuse you so much. I can keep track of everyone (although a couple times I had to chart out who was actually in the manor to make sense of the scene I was writing there since Jani is the only one consistently there and both Seth and Ladybug kept going in and out).

---

Chapter Thirty-Three - Shadows

10:57 AM

Once he was in the manor it was quiet. Too quiet. With everything going on it shouldn’t have been a surprise and yet it was. The manor was the center of their magic and he could only hope that the quiet meant they were upstairs, because he didn’t want to have to search all over town for them. If he had to do that, he didn’t know how long it would take him.

Not that he knew what he’d do when he found them, not exactly, but he’d deal with that when he got there. Having gotten his hands on blueprints registered with the city decades prior, he knew the layout of the manor well enough, but he’d never been inside before. It was about time he changed that, but that wasn’t the point of this, just an added bonus.

“Ow!”

Startled, the watcher took a few steps back and got into the shadows.

A moment later one of the Mitchell twins reached the bottom of the stairs, a grimace on her face. “Stupid staircase.” She marched passed him, scowling. “Stupid curse. Stupid Jani.”

Jani, if he remembered right, was a nickname for the younger twin. He couldn’t rightly remember this twin’s name, but it would come to him later. It was somehow connected to some dead relative of theirs.

He watched her head into the other room where she flipped on the TV, mumbling something under her breath. He took a step out of the shadows toward her and stopped. If she was complaining like that, she might not be the best person to approach and considering what she was complaining about, there were probably more people upstairs or at the very least his twin and he was pretty sure this twin was the one with a temper.

Convinced she was occupied, he slid around the stairs and quietly ascending them. Hopeful her twin was upstairs and he could get her to listen to Charles’ story. Based off the mood of this twin, she didn’t seem like the person he wanted to start with, so hopeful her twin was.

The most likely place to find others was in the attic and since that was where they kept the Book of Shadows, maybe he could find a way to slip it into the Book. If he could do that, maybe they would think a long dead ancestor had slipped it in. With this family that sort of thing actually might happen. Of course getting into the attic without being seen while someone was in there, let alone if there were more than one person in there would be tricky. Too bad invisibility wasn’t an option.

All the doors on the second story were closed. He didn’t think anyone was on this floor, but he stopped quietly and listened at the doors as he made his way toward the stairs to the attic.

The stairs weren’t the hard part, although he had a start as one stair squeaked under his feet. He stopped and leaned against the wall. It wouldn’t do for whomever was up there to hear him unless he was sure that revealing himself was the best strategy and he definitely wasn’t sure of that.

Once he reached the top of the stairs, that was when things would get tricky. He’s have to figure out the lay of the room and how he was going to get in there or at least get the information to them. And with all his myriad powers, nothing came immediately to mind that would accomplish that.

11:04 AM (7:04 PM in Cambridge)

The room was dark. She'd had enough presence of mind to get into an empty room rather than appearing in the middle of the busy hallway. She pulled open the door just enough to see into the hall. Shivering, she surveyed the ice everywhere.

The woman she'd heard talking to Heart must have been responsible for this. She looked down at her own hands for a second and then at the ice in the hall. This was much more massive than anything she could produce. The person responsible for this knew their powers and knew them well. If she had no chance against that person, what kind of chance did Heart have?

"Have you been in there this whole time?" a woman's voice asked her drawing her attention to a blonde woman in candy stripper outfit. "Are you okay?"

"What happened?" Ladybug asked, stepping out into the hall and taking in the ice more fully. "How did all this ice get here?"

"No one's really sure," the woman told her. "There was a wall of it, over there." She pointed over at where there was a large hole in what, sure enough, appeared to have been a thick wall of ice. "It took a while for anyone to get through and by that point there was nothing anyone could do for the young man who'd been trapped in here."

Ladybug’s heart sank. She was too late. “What happened?” There was no sign of Heart, nor was there any sign that he had been there.

“He froze to death, encased in ice.”

Looking at the second wall, Ladybug frowned. There was something odd about the woman’s voice. Deliberately, she kept her face turned away from her, looking along the second wall trying to see what she could find, any sign that Heart had been here.

“Breaking through the wall just took too much time.”

Hearts’s call had been less than fifteen minutes ago. This woman talked as if it had been much longer.

“We should really get you out of here,” the woman suggested. “I’m sure investigators will want to talk to you.”

“I didn’t hear anything,” she commented absently as something at the wall of ice caught her attention. Ignoring protests from the other woman, she walked over to the wall and squatted down. There encased in a thick wall of ice, she saw a phone, one that looked a lot like the phone Heart had when they were together.

“You really should get away from that.”

Ladybug rose to her feet and turned around. “Who are you?”

A smirk flicked across the woman’s face. “I think you know who I am. You’re the one he called, aren’t you?”

“You killed Heart.”

“He would have died anyway. There’s no way to stop this.”

“There’s always a way.”

“Well, you can’t find it little witch. You’re the Warren in his life, but you weren’t enough to save him and you won’t be enough to save anyone else either.”

Drawing in a deep breath, Ladybug glared at her trying to come up with a way to handle this. She had no defense against the ice power this woman controlled, so something else was going to have to work.

“Have you no heart? How can you just kill someone and say it doesn’t matter?”

“He was going to die anyway,” the woman repeated. “You Warrens are so ridiculous. You are so full of yourself, thinking you have the solution to everything. Some people have to die. That’s just the way of it. It’s not something you can stop.”

“You killed Heart, my Heart,” Ladybug accused, her voice rising with every word. “You can’t just get away with that.”

Smirking, the woman snorted. “There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“You think not?” A curse, she could do a curse. There was a lot of power in the Warren line and her mom was a Charmed One. Of course her dad was a cupid which did some interesting things to her powers. She’d never been the best with spells, not having inherited her mom’s talent for them. What she did have was anything that could be considered a cupid’s domain didn’t seem to fail.

What kind of curse could a witch cast that connected to a cupid’s powers?

“Are you threatening me?”

“Maybe you should see how it feels,” Ladybug shot back, “losing someone you love.”

“Been there, done that,” the woman informed her before adding, “twice.”

“Then it wasn’t love.”

“It was love.”

“Evil can’t love.”

“It’s not so black and white as that.” She made a face. “Time changes a lot of things.”

Realization hit. “You’re old.” Most likely she was one of the warlocks who cast the original spell and Ladybug had missed out on a lot, but she’d heard enough to know that they hadn’t always been warlocks.

“How rude.”

“You used to be a witch,” she mumbled, more to herself than to to the warlock.

“When I was two,” the warlock spat out. “It’s certainly not something that I remember.”

“But you remember love.”

“I remember love lost,” the warlock corrected. She held her hand up in front of her face and wiggled her fingers. “Now, I am bored of this.”

“Love twice lost, once more be found.”

The warlock looked at her curiously. “What are you about?”

Ladybug smiled and pressed on. “Quite dear the cost. With hate it’s bound.”

“Hate!” the warlock squawked. “Now wait a minute.” Without taking a moment to aim, she flung her hand in Ladybug’s direction and ice shot out of it.

Ladybug disappeared in pink and white hearts, and reappeared behind the warlock. “Love fills your heart, but his is hard.” She frowned. If this worked, she couldn’t really condemn a man to always going against his heart. It just wasn’t in her. “Unless his choice undoes what’s marred.”

“That’s not right,” the warlock protested. “You can’t do that to him.”

That was not exactly the response she expected from the warlock.

“If that spell of yours does anything to hurt him, I will end you.”

Ladybug frowned. “But you aren’t now?”

“I know how curses work,” the warlock snapped. “They’re easier to get rid of if the person who cast them is the one who undoes them.”

“I won’t.”

The warlock glared at her. “You will. When you see how it hurts him, you will.”

Ladybug looked down her nose at the warlock, so close now that she was assured she wouldn’t be attacked that she could see concealer on the warlock’s nose. “I wouldn’t count on it.” With that she disappeared in pink and white hearts.

11:06 AM

The stairs to the attic proved to be more of a bother than the ones to the second floor. Surely it was just his imagination that made every other stair seem like it creeked under his feet. But no, there was yet another creek.

At the top of the stairs he could see the open door of the attic. That was both a blessing and a curse. When he reached the top of the stairs, they would see him. And there was definitely a they. He couldn’t understand what was being said, but he definitely could identify at least two distinct voices. He stopped as the top of his head was almost definitely visible if one chose to look in the direction of the open door and sighed. This is going to be really annoying.

With that thought in mind, he got down on his hands and knees and crawled the rest of the way up the stairs. It really wouldn’t do for them to see him and wonder what he was about. And after, after he couldn’t have them looking at the results of this information and wonder about him.

“You’d probably best put that down.”

The words drifted down the stairs into his hearing, a feminine whisper that probably belonged to the twin of the girl downstairs, Jani.

“You have a better idea?”

Masculine and not one of the sons of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt. He’d know those voices. Didn’t Paige Matthews have a son as well as the twin girls? It was probably him.

“Come on, Jani. What would you have me do? We have nothing. I mean sure we have things, but nothing we can use, unless you want to count Dad’s boss and quite frankly, I think he’s provided as much use to us as he can. And where do we go when we have nothing? We go to the Book of Shadows.”

“You said you’ve been through the entire book more than once, Hank. You said there is nothing there.”

“I said things were missing and I didn’t say nothing. I mean I found information from that time frame, about Patrick Warren. Besides I’m doing something different this time.”

“What could you possibly be doing different that would be of use?”

“I’m looking for what’s missing.”

The watcher blinked at that. It might prove to be of no use, but it was kind of an interesting approach to it. He could see them now. The boy, Hank, was standing at the pedestal, flipping through what he could only assume was the Book of Shadows, definitely not looking in the direction of the stairs, but he’d be able to see the stairs out of the corner of his eyes and if the watcher made a move, Hank would definitely see it. And if he didn’t Jani was standing by the pedestal looking directly at the pedestal. It was kind of amazing that she hadn’t noticed him already.

Since they were looking his direction, they didn’t see the pink and white hearts forming behind Jani. And since they didn’t see them, it gave him just enough time to realize if he timed it right, he could use this as a distraction.

As soon as Jani and Hank turned their attention toward their cousin, the watcher made his move, scrambling as quietly as he could up the rest of the stairs and behind some chests near the door. Breathing a sigh of relief, he closed his eyes and tried to come up with the next step toward getting Charles’s story to them.

“Ladybug, what happened?” Jani called as she took several rushed steps toward Phoebe Halliwell’s oldest daughter, Prudence. He’d heard the name Ladybug before, but who wanted to go by such a name as a teenager? “Who was that call from?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

The watcher jerked his attention to Prudence. It was hard to tell from this distance and harder still at this angle, but she did look upset about something. Her tone certainly lead one to believe something bad had happened.

“What do we know about the warlocks who are behind this?” Prudence asked, squaring her shoulders. “It’s time to end this.”

“We know their names,” Hank told her. “Dad’s boss told us everything he could, but he’s not in contact with his father’s family and he never has been except for when they cast the curse on him that made talking about this improbable.”

Henry Mitchell’s boss sounded rather interesting. When this was over, he might need to pay the man a visit.

“We all want that,” Jani assured her. “Uncle Andy doesn’t have much time left and unless we figure something out better than what they have done in years past, Uncle Leo won’t be far behind him. Dad’s okay for now and if we could ever figure out where your parents are, your dad shouldn’t be affected by this, but people keep dying. Some of them we know. Most of them we don’t, but . . .” She shrugged. “If not us who?”

This wasn’t at all useful and it certainly didn’t help him figure out how to get the paper with Charles’s story to them. With Prudence in the mix, he thought it less likely that they would listen to him, not with her in the mood she was in. Of course she did seem rather desperate for information, so maybe that was good enough. Getting them to trust anything the watcher provided would be tricky and so the watcher continued the debate in his head.

Before he could decide what to do, blue and white hearts filled the room near Prudence. Wyatt’s face was downcast as he walked over to the couch where the watcher realized Wyatt’s brother slept and sat on the arm. “Someone drug Chris, too?” he asked almost too casually.

Three sets of eyes looked at him surprised. Even the watcher looked on him with interest from his hiding place. Someone had drugged the all powerful twice-blessed? That could prove to be useful information.

“Someone drugged you?” Jani asked, finding her tongue.

“Dr. Nicolae thought I needed rest.”

The watcher barely managed to suppress a loud scoff. Sounded like Wyatt had been up all night and then some on this, too. The young man rose a notch or two in the watcher’s mind. Sometimes you had to put off things like sleep in order to protect those you had been entrusted with.

“You probably did,” Prudence pointed out as she paced the room. “Most of us can use some sleep, but you’ve been up for how many days in a row?” Not waiting for an answer she pulled some papers out of her pockets and looked over them.

“Too many,” Wyatt admitted. “And when this is all over I’ll get more, but right now, I need this to be over.”

It seemed to be the echoing sentiment in the room.

“Are you all right, Wyatt?” Jani asked coming up next to him. “You look worse then you did before you got some sleep.” She stopped in front of him and reached out to touch his face. “Your eyes are bloodshot. Have you been crying?”

He shook his head. “No time for tears, Jani. I have at most two hours to find a way to save a dead co-worker’s brother. Are we getting anywhere?”

There was the question that the watcher most wanted answered, the question that seemed most likely to be no. If they were getting somewhere, the story he had to tell wouldn’t be needed, the solution he’d been told needn’t be used. Two less deaths to his conscious would be nice.

The door slammed open and Alanna finally returned to the attic, walking right passed the watcher with a scowl on her face. “People can be such jerks. You know that?”

All eyes in the room turned to look at her.

“What are you talking about, Lanna?” Jani asked.

“Is my sister okay?” Prudence asked, taking a couple of steps toward her.

Sister? Which sister? Another Halliwell cousin was here? Could that be what the watcher need to figure this out?”

“Oh, nothing,” Alanna sighed. “Sorry, I just went downstairs to check the news. I did check on Hope on the way back up and she’s fine, sound asleep. It’s just the TV guy. The one from earlier’s gotten sick, so the new one is being a jerk about it. Apparently they have a not so friendly rivalry.” She passed her sister and headed across the room to where her brother was looking at bits and pieces. “Anything useful in that mess?”

He shrugged. “I’m still going through it.”

Prudence walked over to them and handed Hank the papers she had retrieved from her pocket. “I’m not sure how much use this is, but it’s what I have right now.”

“And what exactly do we know?” Wyatt demanded. “Two hours isn’t a lot of time and we’ve gotten nowhere over the last several days.”

“We know who’s behind this,” Jani offered. “We even know that our family’s blood was the first shed. That could be important.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Melinda Warren’s grandmother was killed as a sacrifice by the people who started this,” Alanna told him. She sighed and looked down at the papers. “I think the answer might be in those papers, but there is is much information in here and much of it truly is useless. It’s hard to know where to start.”

“Speaking of information, any word from my sister, yet?” Prudence asked. “I would have thought she would have been involved in this fact finding mission.”

“I already told you Hope was downstairs asleep,” Alanna offered helpfully, “so I assume you mean silly.”

The watcher frowned. What did that even mean?”

“Still no news from her or Mom,” Jani informed her. Glancing at Hank, she added, “Well, other than what Hank told us earlier. You sure they don’t need our help?”

Hank shook his head, reluctantly looking up from the papers. “No, they are fine now. They only called me because they had a bit of trouble and then they sent me back to ‘Lanna so that we could talk to Dad’s boss.” He ducked his head back down and continued looking through the papers.

Based on the look on his face when he was speaking, the watcher suspected “a bit” was more than a bit of an understatement.

“Right,” Prudence mumbled. “Silly is out meeting Melinda Warren’s father and grandparents. I forgot.”

The watcher almost slapped his forehead as realization hit. It was Cilly, not silly, short for Pricilla, Prudence and Hope’s middle sister. Her nickname was almost as odd as Prudence’s.

His eyes narrowed as the rest of what Prudence had said registered. Samuel Warren had been located? There was precious little to be found about the man, but considering the rather interesting resources the watcher had to comb through, the idea that someone knew where to find Samuel Warren was definitely news. Definitely something to look in later.

“Are you okay, Ladybug?” Jani asked, putting a hand on Prudence’s shoulder. “We told you all this earlier.”

Prudence shook her head. “I told you, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Then, we won’t. You were going to call Cilly earlier. I know you didn’t get to it, but maybe you can try now. We could use whatever that have learned.”

Prudence nodded. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“I might have something,” Hank called out as Prudence was pulling out her phone.

Alanna was closed to him, so she looked down at the papers in his hand and sighed. “No, that won’t work.”

“Why not? It makes sense. We can counter what they did. We have the information we need.”

Alanna shook her head hard. “The biggest problem I see is that we don’t have enough witches.”

“Enough?” Wyatt stared down at her, stunned. “How could we possibly not have enough witches? Our family is full of witches and beyond that, we have plenty of contacts with other witches, witches who undoubtedly want this stopped as much as we do.”

“Look, I may not be the best student when mom was trying to teach us, but think about it,” Alanna snapped. “There’s a bond in family and we aren’t the only family out there. A family did this, not some random collection of witches, a family, and they made sure that they had enough witches to form a coven. We don’t have that, not in our family alone.”

Lovely. They needed a coven. And they had one, except . . . He could see the pained look on Hank’s face. He’d heard enough to know something was wrong with Hank’s powers and he knew full well that young Hope hadn’t even come into hers. Two of the cousins who had come from the other timeline didn’t have any powers back. And of course Phoebe Halliwell was still missing. That left them with ten powered witches, not nearly enough for this.

And he was still stuck with no way to give them his information and only a vague idea of how he might deliver it. And that was the kicker wasn’t it? Even if it was possible to just stand up and hand them the information, which is surely was, how could they be convinced to trust it. It was nearly a certainty they wouldn’t if the watcher was revealed, not soon enough anyway. There was a chance they might be desperate enough, but what he asked no thing to be taken lightly. They had to be sure.
The watcher eyed Chris asleep on the couch. The rumor in the underworld was that Chris could turn himself invisible. Wouldn’t that be handy for this?

None of the girls possessed powers that would be of use to him. Teleportation he had and ice or fire would just make a mess, not help things.

There was Wyatt’s rather unusual talent for teleporting objects without touching them. The watcher was unsure if Wyatt’s brother shared that talent, but it didn’t really matter since the watcher didn’t.

His favorite was an ability the youngest boy in the room, Hank Mitchell, had and that was what caused a grin to spread across the watcher’s face as he remembered that this ability at least was something the watcher could use.

“Hey! Watch it!”

Not sure what just happened, the watcher took just enough time to make sure that no one was looking toward the stairs and moved toward the still open door as fast and quiet as he could.

Time to talk to a different member of the Halliwell family, one who would listen to him.

---

Apparently I am so eager to share Bunny that I keep imagining it is the next chapter. It really is this time. And I haven't posted it yet anywhere, so you'd be the firs to see it. Not sure when I'll get more beyond it, but that chapter is quite ready to share. Parts of it were written over five years ago. The flashback scene were Coop makes his first appearance in the series being one of them.

[Chrisaholic]

Mmh, this watcher is looking for a Halliwell with certain special ability, it seems. Strange though that only Hank seems to fit and not Wyatt or Chris in that case. Very interesting. Hehe, had to laugh at all the thoughts the watcher regarding the names of the Halliwells.

P.S. Post the next chapter when it's finished.