"Phoebeeeeeeeeeee!"
Silence.
Piper Halliwell stepped carefully into the Manor, dodging fallen books and broken glass. The house was eerily still. Frozen eyes peered down at her from the photographs on the wall. Piper shuddered, the tiny hairs on the back of her neck standing upright.
"Phoebe, are you hoooooome?"
No reply.
"Pruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuue?!
Piper gripped her purse to her chest as a protection mechanism. She frantically searched the room for her sisters.
"Are you hooooooooooooooooooooooooome?!!!!"
The reply that echoed through the house was of equal tone and pitch as the question, with an addition of 375mL of dripping sarcasm.
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo…"
Piper breathed a sigh of relief. "Shit Prue, why didn't you answer me?" she called up to the attic. Once again Piper received no answer. She listened carefully to the silence until it was finally interrupted by the thumping of her sister's slides as they flew down the staircase. Prue followed 5 seconds behind her shoes, scooping them up when she reached the bottom.
Nervous brown eyes met impassive blue, in a silent questioning.
"Are you alright? What's going on? Where's Phoebe? What happened to the house?"….and most importantly…. .
"What crawled up your ass and died recently?! Why the sudden mood change?"Prue's reply sufficiently answered a few of Piper's questions.
"I'm looking for a spell."
Piper shot her sister a quizzical look. "To vanquish a demon?"
Prue raised her eyebrows and stared blankly at her sister, replying in a flat tone. "No. To vanquish a pencil sharpener."
Piper narrowed her eyes at her unresponsive sister before stalking into the kitchen, leaving behind a blurred trail of irritation and annoyance.