Hey everyone! Yay! My second story is finally up and running! Sorry it took so long, but I needed to find a storyline I really liked. And this one came to me at 2 o'clock in the morning so please bear with me, lol. Anyway, let me know what you think about it so far, what you think should happen, whether I should just give up, that sort of thing. So feel free to review, as they keep me writing.
Oh, and I don't own charmed or any of the characters (sadly.) :-P
Chapter One.
Phoebe sat up in bed, gasping, her hair was damp and hung limp against her head, trickles of sweat dabbled her forehead and her pajamas were twisted around her body. Struggling to return her breathing to normal and slow her thumping heart, she placed a hand over her eyes and lay back down slowly on her bed, resting her head against the pillow. She thought back to the dream or, rather, nightmare she had just had. It was the same one she had been having every night that week. It started with flashes of colour, then her, standing at the edge of a rocky cliff, looking down into the roaring ocean below. She'd look to her right, to see her little sister, Paige, smiling at her. She was wearing a long, billowing white dress, and her hair blew around her face gently, making her seem angelic. She'd look to her left, and there was another sister in a white dress. Prue. She would feel so happy, until they both turned to her to say, "You have to choose, Phoebe." Then, they would turn away from her, and jump down into the thrashing ocean and jagged rocks. Then Phoebe would scream and wake up, sweating and wondering what it meant. She didn't usually have visions in the form of dreams but, as Leo kept reminding them, their powers were always growing.
Phoebe sighed and rolled onto her side, closing her tired eyes. No use getting all worked up about it now, she'd tell Piper and Paige that she had had the dream again in the morning. Right now, she needed her beauty sleep.
Piper hummed happily in the bright kitchen, frying an omelet on the stove. The window was open and the curtain was blowing in the crisp, early morning breeze. Leo was out buying some more groceries and Wyatt gurgled happily from his highchair, smashing his scrambled eggs together with his hands. Today, Piper didn't mind. She was in a really good mood. There had been no demon activity for a little over two weeks now, and Leo's charges had barely called for him, leaving Piper to feel like her old self again, like a normal mom. And she was loving every minute.
Sliding the omelet onto a plate, she added some parsley and various other herbs, smiling to herself at how perfect it looked. She looked up suddenly as Paige came shuffling in, yawning widely, her hair still slightly ruffled.
"Good morning!" Piper grinned happily, sliding the plate towards her youngest sister. "Omelet?"
"There is no 'good' in this 'morning'." She grumbled. "It's too early." Then, as an after thought, added, "Yes, I would like an omelet. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Piper laughed, taking away Wyatt's bowl of pulverized eggs and rinsing it in the sink. She wet a cloth, then wiped Wyatt's hands and face.
"Has Phoebe left yet?" Paige said between mouthfuls.
"No, I haven't seen her." Piper grabbed the apple juice from the fridge and poured it into two glasses and a plastic bottle. She then started to make another omelet. "She is probably still in bed. She hasn't really been sleeping well."
Paige nodded, remembering what Phoebe had told them. "You think she had that dream again? The one where Prue and I Thelma and Louise it off a cliff?"
Piper raised her eyebrows at the youngest charmed ones pop culture reference, but decided against commenting. "I don't know, but I better go wake her up or she'll be late for work… again." Piper turned the stove off and walked upstairs to her sister's room, knocking lightly on the door.
"Pheebs… Are you in there, honey?" She pushed the door open and peeked inside to see her little sister lying across the bed, her blanket askew. Her eyes fluttered open as she heard Piper come in.
"Morning," Phoebe croaked, clearing her throat. "What time is it?"
"About eight."
Phoebe groaned and sat up, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
"Did you have that dream again?" Piper sat down on the bed next to Phoebe, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Phoebe nodded.
"Yeah. And another." She said. Piper looked at her, silently telling her to continue, but Phoebe shook her head.
"Later." She waved her hand as if to dismiss the thought and stood up, stretching her legs. She didn't want to tell her older sister right now, not when there was a chance that it could mean nothing. The dream she had had after she had gone back to sleep had been beautiful. A far cry from the nightmares she had been having of her eldest and youngest sister's jumping off a cliff. She didn't want to tell Piper yet, though. She had to make sure.
"Anyway, I'm making eggs if you want some?" Piper stood up and headed for the door.
"Sure, thanks." Phoebe grinned happily. "I'll be down in a minute."
"Yeah, yeah." Piper rolled her eyes, thinking of the time it usually took Phoebe to get ready. Phoebe stuck her tongue out at Piper, who giggled and shut the door behind her then headed back downstairs to the kitchen.
That afternoon, Phoebe stood in the attic flipping silently through the book of shadows, looking for the spell she had heard in her dream last night. Nearly half way through the book, she stopped. She was looking at a page she had passed many times before, but had never really noticed. The only thing she ever remembered seeing was the little hourglass in the right hand corner. Scrawled across the top in small, cursive writing, were the words, 'to alter time'.
"Phoebe!" She jumped as she heard Paige clomping up the stairs, calling her name. She turned back to the book, and, squinting at the tiny writing, she wrote down the spell and the ingredients on a notepad, ripped the top sheet off and stuffed it into the back pocket of her jeans just as Paige came into the attic.
"Phoebe?" Paige saw he sister standing behind the book and rolled her eyes. "There you are! I've only been calling you for the last five minutes!"
"Oops, sorry. I was just… reading." Phoebe noticed the book was still open and quickly slammed it shut. She didn't really know why she didn't want her sister's to know, but she knew she didn't want to tell them, at least not yet anyway. Not until she knew for sure that it would work.
"Well, Piper wants to talk, we'll be downstairs in the sun room when you're ready." Paige said, raising her eyebrows at her sister's weird behavior.
After she had left, Phoebe pulled out the piece of paper she had shoved into her pocket and smoothed it over, then opened the book to find the spell again to make sure she hadn't forgotten to write anything. "That's funny, it's not here." She muttered to herself, flipping back and forth through the pages. There was the spell before it, and the spell after it, but no spell 'to alter time'. In the middle was just a blank page.
"Let's just hope I got it right." She said to herself, before shutting the book closed again, putting the note back in her pocket and walking out of the attic.