WITCHCROSSED
1.01: BEYOND A CALL
Note: This is the first of the three episodes that talk about Phoebe Halliwell's eye account of the occurred event.
It's now been three months since Phoebe Halliwell and her sisters fought the Great Battle against the Jenkins sisters. Even though the days of congratulations and parties lasted long enough and were highly enjoyed by everyone, each of the Halliwell siblings, and even Billie, returned to their normal lives afterwards. It do was a great triumph, but one that couldn't last forever. Since then not much demon activity had been going on. Well, it was rather obvious. Not many demons would've wanted to battle the Charmed Ones after they defeated the Ultimate Power. Leo even managed to at least temporarily recover the power over Magic School.
But no demon activity also meant not much sister activity either. Each one had gone different paths and she only saw them a couple of times a week, maybe even less. Piper had stayed at the Manor with Leo and her two children while Paige moved in with Henry to his apartment. About her, well, she was nearly married now (her wedding didn't had an official date yet, there were still plenty of things to do, but she anticipated the ceremony to be due in a couple of months) and was living with his fiancée Coop in her condo. She felt happy for them, though. Now everyone was having the normal life they always hoped for, each one with their respective men; one of them even with two kids.
It was a Saturday morning. It was one of the few days Phoebe decided not to go to work and spend the day at home. Maybe she would even stop by at the Manor later on. It was around nine o'clock, when her future husband woke her up by laying a trace with the breakfast in the bed.
"Hey, good morning" said Coop in a surprised, yet sweet tone. "You're finally up. I was afraid you were going to miss breakfast."
Phoebe yawned and then added "You mean you didn't make that breakfast for me?"
"Well, it depends. I did now." And with a smile she pushed the tray over to Phoebe.
"Hummm…your cuteness saves you."
"Then I must consider myself a lucky cupid."
"You better… Are you going to be at home today?" asked Phoebe as she bit a piece of her toast.
"I think so. Maybe I'll get a call around noon, but besides that I'm thinking yes. Why? What do you want to do today?"
"I was thinking maybe we could stop by at the Manor and have lunch with my sisters. I haven't seen them since Tuesday." She said as she drank from her glass of milk.
"Are you sure you guys didn't already agreed in meeting each other?" Coop said as he stole a piece of strawberry from his fiancée's cereal.
"Yeah, I told you I haven't seen them or talk to them since Tuesday. Why?"
"Well, there were a couple of missed calls in your cell phones while I was taking a shower." And with this he stole a second strawberry, this time the biggest one.
"Coop you got to stop doing that!" she said with a giggle "Did you check them?"
"Yes, that's why I tell you. One was from Paige's cell phone and the second one was from the Manor."
"Well that's weird. It was like what…eight o' clock in the morning? It's the first time I've heard Paige is up before ten."
"Do you think it's an emergency, then?" her husband asked.
"What kind of emergency could it be?"
"Well, I don't know. Maybe a demonic attack…"
"Coop, I think it's more probable Piper rolled down the stairs. The whole Underworld is in panic now. And I don't know why they shouldn't be. After everything we went through to get rid of the damn Ultimate Power…"
"Well, look at the humble witch talking…" Coop mentioned with a tone of mocking in his voice.
"Of course I'm not going to be humble, Coop. You know how hard it was to get everything finally over with. We even destroyed a family, for God's sake."
"Oh, yeah. How's Billie, talking about that?"
"She's better. Still very sad, I suppose. I talked to her about a week ago and she sounded a lot better. She even said she was ready to give Christy a proper funeral." She roughly stopped when she said this, suddenly remembering something. "Oh, no, no, no!" She abruptly jumped out of bed and quickly ran to the calendar attached to the door of the bathroom.
"Please, Coop, please tell me today is not the seventh. Please tell me today is not July the seventh."
Coop made an uncomfortable silence that clearly told Phoebe that sunny Saturday morning was in fact July the seventh. It was not a good sign. Definitely not a good sign. Phoebe had forgotten something evidently important.
"No! No, no, no. This can't be happening, Coop. This can't be happening." She nervously murmured as she walked from one corner of the room to another looking for the nearest clothes to put on.
"What's the matter?" Coop said now a little worried. Suddenly he remembered something mentioned to him a couple of days ago. "Phoebe, don't tell me today it was supposed to…"
"No, Coop. It wasn't. Leo's audience with the Elders is in two Mondays." Phoebe said now looking for a pair of jeans and a blouse in her closet.
"Then why are you so hurried?"
"Because when Billie said she was ready to give Christy a proper funeral now, she meant a proper funeral on July the 8th! …"
"Phoebe, July the 8th is tomorrow…" Coop said trying to calm the walking wreck of nerves that was walking through the room.
"I know tomorrow is the eight, Coop! What I mean is that Billie was supposed to arrive today!"
"Was supposed?" Coop asked, obviously not understanding one thing that Phoebe was saying.
"Well, I was never told otherwise. And since Piper has I don't know what thing at the club and Paige was going with Leo to arrange some things at Magic School, I was supposed to pick her up at the airport…" and with this, she forced some boots on her feet and quickly tied her hair into a ponytail.
"I can't believe I forgot. I was told about it weeks ago…Piper is going to kill me." She disconnected her cell phone from the power line, put it in her purse and walked out of the bedroom. This actually surprised her. She never realized how well and quickly she acted under pressure.
"At what time does her flight land?" Coop asked, almost yelled, to Phoebe, who was now in the middle of the living room.
"A quarter before eight... I can't understand why she would want to arrive so early…" Phoebe murmured angrily more to herself than to the cupid that was chasing her around the house.
"Want a ride?"
"Oh, what's twenty more minutes?!" she said as she closed the door of the condo, leaving Coop a little bit confused, but with a wide smile on his face. He turned around and reentered the bedroom to finish the breakfast he himself had started.
***
As Phoebe got up in the car and she turned it on, she took out her cell phone and started dialing the Manor, but it kept sending her to the message machine. She tried twice and both times the same thing happened.
"Please be home, Piper. Please be home." She thought as she quickly drove through the streets of the city heading to the airport.
Then she tried contacting Paige in her cell phone, but no one answered. It was rather obvious, when she thought about it. Very rarely the signal could reach Magic School, supposing Paige was still there.
She was hoping maybe Billie had called some of her sisters when she realized Phoebe was not waiting for her and one of them could've gotten there on time. But in the meanwhile she still had to go there and verify it herself.
Just when she was looking for Paige's number to call her one more time, and this time leave a message, her cell started ringing and after checking it was Piper's cell phone, she answered and prayed that Billie was with her and both of them would have some mercy.
"Hello?" she asked in a frightened voice.
"Phoebe? Finally you answered me, I was worried…" For Phoebe's surprise, Piper didn't sound angry at all, but more in a hurry and kind of relieved.
"Okay, Piper. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I forgot to pick Billie at the airport. Is she with you or…?"
"Phoebe, Phoebe…Billie is with me. She is fine. But you have to immediately come to the Manor…"
"Is there something wrong, Piper? You sound worried."
"There's no time for explanations right now. Please get to the Manor as soon as possible. And have you seen Paige?
"No, no. I haven't. Piper, what's wrong?" she asked now with fright and concern in her voice. Then she heard Piper mumbling something to someone out there after a loud crashing sound.
"Piper? What was that? Is everything okay?" Phoebe said as she slowed down the vehicle since she wasn't heading to the airport anymore, but to a completely different point in the city.
"Phoebe, please…Billie, get down for God's sake! ...Hurry!" she yelled before the call was cut off.
Phoebe was now worried. From what she had just heard, Paige was apparently missing and something was going on at the Manor; certainly something not good. Maybe a demon was attacking. She knew that that was highly improbable (that would be practically suicide), yet not impossible. But when she thought about it, they do were living with low defenses the last couple of weeks and maybe a little with too much confidence; a clever demon with enough power that was found not too affected by the recent battle, could find this a perfect opportunity to attack the sisters.
But whatever it was, she knew she had to head to the Manor and quickly. So she abruptly turned around in a corner started to speed up.
In that exact same moment, a woman came running out of nowhere and placed herself in front of Phoebe's car. She tried to break as fast as she could, but of course it wasn't soon enough.
"Oh, my God!" Phoebe kept saying as she got out of the car and leaned down to help down the hurt woman that was under her car. When she looked at her closely, it looked strangely familiar to her. She couldn't remember from where, and that wasn't really important right now. She had to help her. People were now gathering around the tragic scene.
THE END
