Title: Charmed Lives
Author: Melpomene
E-mail: melpomene@stories.com
Disclaimer: Charmed and all of its trappings belong to Spelling Productions, WB, etc. No profit is being made from this work nor is copyright infringement intended.
Distribution: Ask me, I'll say yes although I'll be tempted to ask why.
Author's Note: This is a rewrite of a story I began last week and had gotten three chapters into before it decided to rewrite itself.
Charmed LivesA full moon hung heavily above the slumbering mansion, its cool light casting weird and wild shadows as a savage wind whipped through the chill air. The shadows danced in a tumultuous riot of dark shades and drug the autumn night into its frenzied incorporeal dance. The Halliwell manor was dark and quiet despite the unrest that battered against its walls, the windows were shut tight against the gusts that rattled the glass panes and stirred dust motes from the sills.
Gallfrec stood beneath the madly swaying limbs of a tree, his lips moving in easy rhythm to the spell he worked to conjure against the occupants of the house. His curse would succeed where all others of its kind had failed. He would single-handedly destroy the Charmed Ones.
~~~
"Piper! Sweetie, it's time to get up!"
Piper started awake, pulled from a tangle of dreams. She rubbed madly at her eyes, trying to clear her sleep-fogged brain from the last vestiges of her dreams.
"Piper!"
There was something about the voice, something she couldn't quite place. Then it dawned on her. It wasn't Phoebe or Prue calling her, it wasn't Leo, it was someone else. She jerked the blankets up to her neck as her bedroom door burst open and emitted a tall man draped in a mutiny of bright colors into the room.
"Come on now, darlin'. This has just got to stop." He stood at the foot of her bed, shaking his head and softly tsking her status. "I just don't know what to do about you anymore but I refuse to watch you kill yourself."
She sat up in bed a bit more and cocked her head at her odd visitor. "What are you talking about? Who are you? Where are Prue and Phoebe?" She tried to look behind the stranger to see if her family was playing some strange practical joke on her. "Leo!" she called, tilting her head toward the ceiling. "Leo, get down here right now!"
"Oh, sweetie!" The man's expression softened and he walked to the side of the bed, sitting down while Piper frantically scooted to the far side of the mattress. "I told you to lay off the booze last night. I'm your best friend…"
"Wait a minute," Piper said, her memory stirring slightly. "You're Matthew Fields. We went to chef school together." Having placed the man's face, she tried to come up with a reason for his presence in her bedroom.
"Now you're remembering," he encouraged. "Yes, we went to chef school together. We've been through relationship ups and downs together, when your sisters left town for good we went out a got plastered on gin and tonics…"
"Prue and Phoebe? Gone?" Panic was beginning to override her senses. Prue and Phoebe had left San Francisco? When? Hadn't they all three been in the mansion the night before?
"Well, I guess it isn't fair to say Phoebe left town so much as Prue. I mean the who could blame Pheebs-girl for staying in such an amazing place like New York City?"
"Phoebe's still in New York?" Piper's head was spinning. What could have happened to confuse reality so much? And where had Prue gone?
"Yes, honey, Phoebe's in New York and Prue's in Baltimore. Don't worry, it'll all come back to you after you've had a shower and gotten dressed. What do you say to a serving of my soon to be world-famous San Fran omelet."
"Huh?"
Matthew peered at her. "Man, honey, how much did you drink last night? You've got to start layin' off the booze, darlin'. I know you hate it when I say so, but you're gonna wind up killin' yourself even faster than you already are. If you would just tell those sisters of yours, I bet they would make time in their busy schedules to see you. But yeah, I know, you don't think your problems are important enough to warrant bothering your precious sisters." He stood up and walked to the door. "I'll get the water warmed up for your shower and go start a pot of coffee. You work on those self-esteem problems and try to remember where you are." He walked into the hall and called over his shoulder, "I'm going to make you one of my omelets, starving yourself to death won't make them see you any more clearly. I mean, Prue just moved away a few months ago and you were already way too skinny then."
Piper wrinkled her nose in confusion. The morning was just getting weirder and weirder. She tossed the linens away and swung her legs over the side of the bed before she caught her reflection in the mirror. The vision that faced her took her breath away. The thin gown she wore did nothing to hide the fact that she was in deed wasting away. Too-thin arms and legs and far too prominent bones that jutted out beneath the surface of her pale sallow skin were combined with lank lusterless hair and heavily shadowed eyes.
Her eyes darted around the room. It was at least her own bedroom although she only recognized half of the items it held. There among the framed pictures from her youth and odd bits of memorabilia were other pictures of Prue and Phoebe, pictures she had never before seen much less framed, along with souvenirs of places she had never been. Resting atop her dresser was a stack of postcards and she pulled herself up from the mattress to investigate. The cards were from the east coast, pictures of the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan Island, the Lincoln Memorial, and Chesapeake Bay, among other well known landmarks. She flipped the cards over, trying to read the printed messages that had been smeared by tears. The notes from Prue and Phoebe were brief and filled with excitement and a couple held phone numbers that she noted quickly for future reference but she could feel the loss regardless. They had left her. Abandoned San Francisco and the manor and left her to cope with her own life in whatever terms she deemed fit. Glancing down at her body, she wondered how they ever could have done such a thing.
"Sweetie, don't tell me you're still cryin' over those cards."
Matthew's voice startled her and she dropped the postcards, letting them flutter to the floor like leaves from the trees in autumn. Her head reeled. Something demonic was at work and she needed to find out what it was. "Umm… I was just looking for something," she murmured.
"Yeah, you're lookin' for the same thing you always do when you read those cards. You're wanting to read about how much they miss you, about how they love you and want to be a family again. But honey, it hasn't happened and it won't happen. I'm afraid you're just setting yourself up for eternal heartbreak." Matthew turned his gaze to the postcards. "They do love you, Piper. They just aren't very good at showing it. Now come on and get a move on, you've got a busy day ahead of you."
"I do?"
"Do you really think I have any intention of letting you stay in this house for one more day? Really now, I left you on your own for a week now and I don't think you've so much as fallen out of your bed." He grabbed her hand and gently pulled her to her feet. "You might not think you're worth anything, and maybe your sisters don't either, but I do."
Piper allowed herself to be pushed into the steam-filled bathroom. She needed to check the Book of Shadows to see if she could figure out what had happened, but she would have to wait until Matthew left and his departure didn't look likely until she could convince him she would be all right on her own. If she could just maintain enough of her cool to find out what forces were at work, she'd allow herself to fly into a full-blown panic attack as soon as she was back in her real life.
~~~
"Did it work?"
Darkness abounded with varying shades of black intermingling in a sulfuric haze of tormented winds that swept through the cavern. The conversation ebbed and flowed on the gusts, torn from the mouths of those who were present. Gallfrec had called for the meeting in secret, away from the prying eyes of his colleagues. To destroy the Charmed Ones without assistance was a remarkable feat but having done it without first relieving them of their powers would draw the heated rage of those who lusted after the strength they possessed down upon his head.
"Of course, it worked. Did you doubt my abilities?"
"No," a hiss said from the depths of the darkness. "But the Power of Three is not yet destroyed, it will remain intact until the bond is severed completely."
"And it will be, all you need do is wait."
to be continued…