The Power of Influence
Friday April 9, 2027
Prologue - Tyler's Girls
The casual observer would have at first seen a proud father watching his two preteen daughters. That would have last about until they saw Piper Westcott look across the room and a doll start floating toward her. Her younger sister, Leah, was oblivious as she stacked blocks onto her fortress.
Tyler Westcott, the father of the two girls looked up from where he was sitting on the floor and saw the doll floating toward them. He smiled slightly and shook his head. "I'm not sure your mom is ready to see that, Sweetie."
Piper concentrated on the doll and it slipped quickly through the air and into her arms. "You said to practice," she protested looking defiantly at her father.
Tyler nodded in agreement. "I did and you should. When I was a little older than you I came into my powers and I couldn't learn to control them. At least yours is safer."
As if in response to her father's comment about his less than safe ability, Leah put her hands to her temples and concentrated on one of the blocks. It burst into flames.
Tyler grabbed a nearby jacket and quickly smothered the fire. "Remember what I said, Leah."
"Only practice on stuff no one wants cause then it's gone," she recited before looking at the jacket covering her block. "Is my block gone?"
"Tyler, have you seen Matthew?" Miranda Westcott's voice sounded from outside the room.
Getting up Tyler admonished his oldest daughter, "Piper, make sure Leah doesn't start any fires while I am gone."
"Okay, Dad," Piper agreed readily.
Tyler entered the hallway where his wife stood with their youngest daughter, Halli. "What is this about Matthew?"
"He was on the computer showing Halli and me a game he got from Jonathan," Miranda began. "The timer for the oven rang, so Halli and I went to the kitchen and got dinner out of the oven. When we returned to get Matthew to the table he wasn't there."
Tyler looked down at Halli. "Did Matthew tell you he was going somewhere?"
"No, Daddy," Halli informed his with a shake of her blonde head.
Without another word Tyler turned around and walked back into the room only to find it empty. The jacket had been removed from the pile of blocks and Piper's doll was on the floor. Tyler's eyes widened as he sucked in a breath. As he looked around the room panic began to set in. He turned around once more and exited the room, faster this time.
As soon as he reached his wife and daughter he scooped Halli up into his arms and addressed his wife. "Piper and Leah aren't in there. When you called me, they were on the floor playing with blocks. Now, they're gone."
"Gone?" Miranda asked startled. "How can three children just vanish like that?"
"I don't know," he admitted, "but we aren't letting Halli out of our sight."
For anyone who hasn't recently read "The Magic Is Back", there is a phone call on the answering machine from Tyler about setting his wife's hair on fire. And if you recall in the last episode, Seth and Melinda both brought information about a demon that was going to show up to Wyatt and Chris. And in the last chapter a little girl disappeared.
Faced with something he doesn't know how to handle, Tyler is going to seek help from the people who helped him before, but things aren't going to go quite a smoothly as he hopes.
PS - In reading some info about the upcoming Charmed comics it was mentioned in one place that Tyler is the focus of one of the Charmed novels, The Brewing Storm, and in that novel he got the last name Michaels. I did not know that when I wrote this story and there was no last name mentioned in the episode he was in, therefore the last name I chose for him, Westcott, will be the one I use. For anyone who read that book . . . want to tell me if it's any good. I haven't read it yet, but now that I know it's about Tyler I want to quite badly. I love that kid.