Times Up

Chapter 1 - Tick, Tick, Tock, Tick

"Paige!", a loud shriek came from the kitchen of Halliwell Manor. Piper, the oldest sister, had woken up to a dreadful sight. The night before the youngest Halliwell, Paige, had been practising making a vanquishing potion, it had gone brilliantly, it was just a little bit too powerful.

Paige had tried her new creation out on a pumpkin but instead of just making it go 'pop' she made it go 'BANG!' and covered the whole kitchen in a horrible orange, stringy mess and as per usual Paige thought she'd leave it for Piper to clean up…..again.

"Paige," Piper screamed a second time for her sister, then a third, "Paige, get down here now!"

As Paige rubbed the sleep from her eyes she muttered through muffled yawns, "What time is it? Why did you wake me up?" And then she realised why Piper was so mad. "Opps! I was meant to clear that up wasn't I?"

Running down the stairs, still doing the buttons of her shirt up, came a very rushed off her feet Phoebe.

" What's all the shouting for sis?" asked Phoebe still catching her breath, and then she also realised the mess, "Oh my god, what demon did we vanquish?"

A very sarcastic Piper answered, " The Evil Pumpkin Demon," she folded her arms, "Paige thought she's leave it for us to clean up!"

"I'm really sorry Piper," begged Paige.

"Is there really a pumpkin demon?" asked Phoebe who by now was extremely confused. But before either of her sisters could answer her, the phone went. All Paige and Piper could hear was shouting. Phoebe came off her phone and looked at her watch, then she realised why her boss was so furious, she was an hour an a half late.

"Oh great, I'm over an hour late for work!" remarked Phoebe as she fussed around trying to get all her stuff together.

"What time is it now?" questioned Paige in a confused voice.

"11.45, why?" replied Phoebe.

Piper butted in, "But we got up at 8:00, we haven't been up for almost four hours!"

"That's just freaky," pointed out Paige.

"Freaky or not, I'm late for work," rushed Phoebe.

"Can't they just get that ghost-writer to cover you, just say it's an…." Piper was rudely interrupted by Phoebe.

"If you think I'm having that manipulative, annoying, so-called-ghost-writer, Leslie , covering me again then you have another thing coming! And anyway you know what happens to my empathic powers when I see him!" screamed Phoebe all in a fluster.

"Yeh, you end up making out with him." muttered Paige.

"I heard that." shouted Phoebe as she headed for the door.

Phoebe works as a newspaper agony aunt and has so many 'family emergencies' that can't be explained that her boss was forced to put a ghost-writer by the name of Leslie on speed dial, literally!

The only problem is, is that Phoebe's empathic power, the power to feel what others feel, makes her aware of the lust Leslie feels for her and brings out the feel of lust that she feels for him.

"Ok, go if you must!" argued Piper.

"Fine then, I will…" stropped Phoebe, " as soon as I find my keys!"

"Well I'm going back to bed even if it is…" Paige checked the clock, "6 in the morning! I'm definitely going back to bed."

Paige was just about to walk up the stairs when Piper pulled her back down in to the conversation with a thud.

"Something weird is defiantly going on," Piper paused "Phoebe, you're not going to work, go check the book of shadows…"

"But…"whined Phoebe.

"No buts, and Paige, you stay down her and fix that potion, AND CLEAR UP THIS TIME!"

"Yes sir!" yelled Paige sarcastically as she saluted Piper!

"Don't do that Paige" said Piper.

The sisters spilt up. Phoebe and Piper went to the attic to check the book of shadows for anything that could control time. At the same time Paige went of into the kitchen to clean her mess up and try and fix her potion, and probably make a whole new mess!