"Mommy!" Prudence Halliwell ran over to her mother. "Mommy, I'm back from school!"
"That's wonderful sweet heart," the girl's mother said distractedly. It was six years after she had married and five since the birth of her first daughter who she had named after her oldest sister. She was happy with her life for once. She had three beautiful daughters, Prue, Parker, and Psyche. She was married to a wonderful husband, Coop. Her sisters were all happy, settled with families of their own. She should be completely happy. She should be. And she was! But she felt… unsettled. "What did you learn about today?"
"We talked about white lighters and dark lighters." Prue said wrinkling up her nose. "Hi Ki." It was her sister's name for Psyche. Parker hadn't been ably to say her full name so she had shortened it.
"Kay Prue, you need to get ready to go to Aunt Piper's," Phoebe said, trying to run a brush through her daughters hair.
"I don't wanna!" Prue pouted.
"How come? You know how much Aunt Piper loves seeing you! And Aunt Paige will be there."
"Yeah, but Chris keeps orbing away my toys!"
"Oh, it'll be fine. Now come on, we've got to go find your little sister." Phoebe began to walk toward the room Parker and Prue shared. She froze as she opened the door, hand on the doorknob. A vision assaulted her.
A man stooped next to the door, talking to Parker, who had her thumb in her mouth.
"Is your mom home?" Parker shook her head. "Do you know where she went?" Parker shook her head again. "Do you know when she'll be back?" Parker shook her head once more. Phoebe could see that the man was tensing up. Why did his voice sound so familiar? Behind him, a door began to open. He started to turn around. Before she could see his face, the vision ended.
"Whoa. That was…weird," Phoebe shook her head. She rarely ever had accidental visions any more. "Who was that man?" she said to herself.
"The fire man?" said Prue. "The one that talks to Parker?"
"What? You saw him?" Phebe said shocked. Prue never had visions. Or at least, she never had before.
"Yeah. He's always talking to Parker."
"He's talked to him before?" she said, now really worried.
"Yeah."
"Does he talk to you?"
"Well, sometimes. Haven't you seen him before mommy? He's always around."
"Wait you mean, not just in visions?"
Prue giggled. "I don't have visions mommy. That's Priss' power." Pris was short for Priscilla, one of Prue's twin cousins.
'So when do you see him?"
"Oh, around. He's always waiting here."
"Does he say why?"
"To talk to you mommy."
"Why does he want to talk to me?"
"I don't know. But then he always blinks out before you come back. I guess that's why you don't see him."
"What do you mean, blinks out? Like, magically?"
"Yeah mommy. Like Wyatt."
"Oh, so he's a white lighter." It was strange that if she had a new white lighter that wouldn't reveal himself, especially since she was retired for the most part.
"No…."
"No?"
"Well, not just like Wyatt."
"So… he's not a whitelighter?"
"No. He's not white."
"So he's not a white lighter."
"No, he's green."
"What do you mean?"
"His sparkles. They're green. With a little bit of blue around the edges. I've never seen sparkles like his before, have you?"
"Sparkles?" Phoebe said, trying to keep the skepticism from her voice. Maybe it was just some sort of imaginary friend.
"Yeah. Everyone sees sparkles."
"Okay sweetie."
"His look like this." She waved her fingers in the air. Green and blue light appeared next to Phoebe in the shape of a person. She jumped.
"What was that?"
"It's the sparkles mommy. Everyone's got them."
"What are they?"
"I don't know… it shows if you're a good person." Prue had always been able to create visions in the air, make things appear that weren't really there, but these sparkles were new. Or maybe they were old, but she just hadn't heard of them yet.
"So… what do my… sparkles look like?"
"Like this!" she waved her fingers again. Yellow and red sparkles appeared in the air. They had a jumpy quality to them, more like sparks then the haze the other 'sparkles' had shown. "You and Aunt Piper and Aunt Paige all have yellow sparkles. But Aunt Paige's are lighter. That's because she's part white lighter. And Aunt Piper has more brown in them like a banana skin. And yours are very jumpy recently… I don't know why…"
"So what do green sparkles mean?"
"I don't know… but it's not too bad. Red is the worst. Green isn't perfect though. And his sparkles are all hazy. He's worried."
"What about blue?"
"Blue means… blue means you're a demon. But I've never seen a demon with that little blue in their sparkles!"
Phoebe felt her stomach sink a little. "Did this man… did he ever mention his name?"
"Yeah. He said it was… Carl? No that's not right. Cuh, Cuh…. I can't remember… it started with a C."
Phoebe could feel a chill going through her. "Cole."