Episode 1: The Wiccan Journey Begins
Phoebe Halliwell was your typical average twenty-two year old. She loved to go out and party. She loved to drink. She absolutely loved men and was practically with a new man every night. Also, like most people, she had conflict with her sisters. Phoebe loved Piper and Paige was okay most of the time but she just couldn't stand Prue.
As Phoebe walked into her apartment on a cold rainy night in New York City, she reflected back to when she used to live in San Francisco with her two older sisters and one younger sister. Prue was dating a man named Roger at the time. Phoebe never liked Roger but she pretended to like him for Prue's sake. One night while Prue was out, Roger made a pass at Phoebe. Phoebe declined and was furious with him for hitting on her when he was dating her sister. When Phoebe tried to tell Prue what was going on, Prue didn't believe her. Later on, Prue accused Phoebe of making a pass at Roger when he told her that what's really happened. Prue and Phoebe got into a shouting match and finally, Phoebe left the Manor never to return again.
That was years ago though and times have changed.
Phoebe walked around her tiny studio apartment in New York and realized how much she hated it. She barely had enough room to put a bed in and the kitchen was tiny. The heat never worked so it was freezing cold. Phoebe's job didn't pay enough money so she couldn't always afford her electricity. It was when Phoebe was tired of sitting in the dark freezing cold that she decided to move back to the Manor. Phoebe reached over to her phone, which barely worked properly and called the Manor. She prayed to God that Prue wouldn't answer.
"Hello."
Phoebe breathed in a sigh of relief. It was Piper.
"Piper, it's me."
"Phoebe? I haven't heard from you in a while. What's up?"
"I don't really know how to say this but can I come back to San Francisco and live in the Manor? I'm not happy here in New York anymore."
"Oh? I'm sorry to hear that. Well, you certainly can. The manor is one fourth yours anyway. I'll let Prue and Paige know."
"Actually, I was wondering if you wouldn't tell them."
"Why not?"
"You know that Prue and I don't exactly get along and Paige and I are super different from each other."
"Phoebe, they live here. Eventually, they're going to find out that you're coming back."
"I know, Piper. I just don't want them to know right now. Can you keep it a secret for me?"
Piper sighed into the phone.
"Okay but eventually they're going to have to find out."
"Yes but today is not the day. Thanks, Piper. I owe you one."
"When are you coming back?"
"I'm moving out of my apartment in a week and then I'm going to take my flight the next morning."
"Okay well I'll get your old bedroom ready."
"Love you. I can't wait to see you."
"Yeah, it'll be nice to see you too."
Piper hung up the phone. Piper was always the people pleaser. She always had to mediate between her siblings. Prue and Phoebe always fought and Paige was sort of the black sheep of the family. Phoebe and Paige liked each other but there were definitely very different from each other. Phoebe was the wild child while Paige was always sort of uptight. Phoebe loved to drink where as Paige never so much as drank a sip of wine. None of the sisters knew why Paige was so uptight. There were times where Paige was very rebellious too but her behavior abruptly changed and remained that way ever since.
Piper walked into the kitchen and preheated the oven to begin cooking dinner. She also prepared herself a cup of tea to drink and then sat down at the kitchen table. The backdoor opened revealing the youngest Halliwell sister.
"Hey, Piper."
"Hey, Paige. Have a seat."
Paige placed her backpack on the floor and then sat down next to Piper at the kitchen table.
"How was school?" Piper asked.
"Boring. I don't understand why I have to take these dumb general education classes. I just want to take the courses I want to take."
"It's just part of the experience. That way you'll get a full on liberal arts education." Piper said.
"Well it's stupid. I don't want to do this anymore. I want to be a social worker not a marine biologist." Paige said.
Paige crossed her arms and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. Piper chuckled.
"You'll get there, kid. I promise."
"Is Prue home?" Paige asked.
Piper shook her head.
"No. She's still at Bucklands."
Paige sat up in her chair.
"This late?" Paige asked.
Piper nodded.
"I'm really concerned about her. She's been working really hard lately."
"Why? Is she working hard to impress Roger?" Paige snapped.
Piper crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
"No. She's just a hard worker."
"I know that. I just feel like ever since Roger got her that job at Bucklands all Prue does it work there all the time just for his benefit. I barely see her anymore."
"I miss her too but this is just how it's going to be right now. Besides, Prue really thinks that Roger could be the one."
Paige rolled her eyes and stood up.
"The one? Are you kidding? There's never one person that we fall in love with. That's complete crap." Paige said.
"You think soul mates are complete crap?"
Paige nodded.
"It's just a way of telling women to wait around for Mr. Right to come in and sweep them off their feet. It's never going to happen because it doesn't exist."
"Believe what you want to believe, Paige, but Prue and Roger are very happy together and I'd love to see her get married."
"If you think we barely see her now, we'll never see her once she's married."
"I want her to be happy just like I want you and Phoebe to be happy too."
Paige turned towards Piper with a look of confusion on her face.
"Phoebe? Why did you bring up Phoebe? It's been years."
"I don't know. I mean, she's still our sister. Don't you want her to be happy?"
"I mean, I guess so. But I just haven't talked to her in years and I just don't really think about her anymore."
"Well that might change." Piper muttered.
"What?" Paige asked.
"Nothing." Piper replied.
Paige simply shrugged and turned on the television. Paige started cleaning up some of the dirty dishes and didn't pay attention to the TV. Piper continued sipping her tea and grabbed a newspaper that was sitting on the table that no one had bothered to read.
"I can't believe it. There's been another murder in the area." Piper said.
"Really? That's awful." Paige said.
"It's always been young women in there twenties just like us. I'm getting a little bit nervous to be honest."
"We'll be fine. We're just a bunch of sisters, there's nothing special about us." Paige said.
Neither sister bothered to pay attention to the television as it showed that a murder had taken place very close to their home.
Inspector Andy Trudeau was one of the best cops in the entire city of San Francisco. He had solved more cases than any other cop and he was rumored to be close to being promoted to chief inspector. That was his dream. Andy was very satisfied with his life. He and his wife Susan had recently split but they still remain on good terms. He was a single man and he loved it. He was with a different woman every night and every woman he was with was satisfied. He also had some great friends including his partner, Daryl, who he had been friends with since they were kids. With Andy's almost near perfect track record, these recent strings of murders were getting under his skin. He had been working late every single night trying to piece together the clues to figure out who murdered these women yet nothing came together.
Andy was sitting at his desk looking at some of the photos of the various crime scenes when Daryl entered and sat next to him. He brought some coffee with him.
"Another late night?" Daryl asked.
Andy nodded.
"I can't figure it out. It's driving me insane."
"I know the feeling but you still have to take care of yourself. I'm worried about you."
"I'm fine. I need to solve this case. I can't let another innocent woman die."
Daryl gave Andy a sympathetic look.
"Andy, it's not your fault. You're doing the best you can."
"I don't like it when innocent people are killed especially when I know that I can stop whoever's doing this."
Andy drank a sip of coffee and then rested back into his chair.
"There just has to be something that I'm missing." Andy said.
Suddenly, the chief inspector entered the room. Andy and Daryl both stood up as a sign of respect for their boss. The inspector walked over to the two men.
"How are you doing on the murder case, Trudeau?" The inspector asked.
"Very good, sir. I'm close." Andy replied.
"Not good enough, Trudeau. I'm assigning another man on the case."
"Sir, please. I'm almost there." Andy said.
"Another man can help you. He's a fresh mind just out of the police academy. He should be able to help crack this case."
"With all due respect, sir, I don't think an amateur cop will help me with this case." Andy said.
"I don't need your opinions. Your job is to do as I say."
"Yes, sir."
"Good, there's the man now."
Andy and Daryl turned around to reveal a young man named Henry Mitchell. He was a good-looking guy with dark eyes and very short, dark hair. He looked like he was Polish in origin. The chief inspector grabbed him a chair to sit next to Andy.
"Mitchell, this is Trudeau and Morris. They've been working on the murder cases of many young women in the area. Help them in any way you can. Let's nail this son of a bitch."
The chief inspector then left the three men alone. Daryl reached out his hand to Henry.
"Hello, I'm Daryl. Nice to meet you." Daryl said.
"Henry. Nice to meet you too." Henry replied.
Andy looked at Henry with disdain but shook his hand anyway at Daryl's insistence.
"So what have we got so far?" Henry asked.
"Haven't you paid any attention to the news?" Andy asked.
"I've been kinda busy." Henry said.
"Too busy to care about seven women who have all been killed by the same person?" Andy snapped.
"I didn't say that." Henry replied.
"Guys! Knock it off. This isn't helping. Henry, there's been seven women who have been killed. They're all in there twenties and they've all been single. The only common occurrence that we've found is that they've all been killed by an athame. There haven't been any witnesses and nobody has any idea who's behind this."
Henry stroked his chin.
"Why an athame? Why wouldn't they just use a gun?" He asked.
"That's a good question. We don't know. In this day and age, you'd think they'd use a gun. But it never has been a gun." Daryl said.
"Have any of the victims interacted with each other?" Henry asked.
Andy slammed his right hand down on the table.
"All you're doing is wasting time asking questions we already know. This isn't helping." Andy snapped.
"Andy, cool it." Daryl snapped.
Andy stood up suddenly which knocked the cup of coffee onto his lap. Andy groaned and then left the room to change.
"What's going on with him?" Henry asked.
"He's a good guy. He's just really frustrated. His sister was murdered and ever since, he's always been emotionally invested in these kinds of cases."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope we can get this bastard." Henry said.
"Me too." Daryl added.
Later on in the evening, Piper and Paige retired to the living room to talk. Paige sat on the sofa, resting out her legs while Piper sat up in the chair drinking her fourth cup of tea.
"All I'm saying is that I just don't really see her as a sister anymore." Paige said.
"Paige, she'll always be our sister. We're related by blood." Piper replied.
Paige sighed.
"I know that but she hasn't been a part of our lives in years. I'd rather just move on then keep rehashing the past."
"All I'm asking is just keep an open mind, that's all."
Paige sat up and eyed her older sister suspiciously.
"Why? What's going on, Piper? Usually you don't talk about her and now all of the sudden you're bringing her up? What do you know?" Paige asked suspiciously.
Piper looked around nervously but before she could tell Paige the truth, Prue opened the door.
"Oh, look. Prue is home." Piper said.
"Avoiding." Paige said curtly.
Piper rolled her eyes and then walked over by the door to greet her older sister.
"Prue, how are you?" Piper asked.
"Fine. Just fine." Prue replied.
Piper knew that Prue was getting frustrated. She had wanted to marry Roger for a while but he still hadn't proposed. It had been a while and Prue was starting to get restless.
"How's Roger?" Piper asked.
"He's fine." Prue replied shortly.
Paige walked out into the foyer and rested her back against the wall.
"You should just ask him to marry you if you want him that badly." Paige said.
Prue put her coat on the coat rack and then walked into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea.
"He's the man. He should ask me." Prue said.
Paige and Piper followed Prue into the kitchen.
"Oh come on, Prue. Don't be such a traditionalist. It's the 90's, everything is different now." Paige replied.
"Maybe to you. Not to me. Roger is going to ask me to marry him. I'm getting old and it's time for me to get married and have kids. How much longer am I supposed to live with my sisters?" Prue asked.
Piper and Paige both looked offended.
"No offense." Prue added.
"Prue, you should marry Roger because you love him, not because you feel like you have to." Piper replied.
"I have to do what I need to do. I can't keep waiting around for Mr. Right. Roger's fine. I'm ready."
"You'll marry him because he's just fine? Seriously?" Paige asked.
Prue shrugged.
"I'm 28 years old and the only serious relationship I had was with – " Prue began to say.
Piper and Paige both were waiting for Prue to finish her statement but Prue's attention was towards the television.
"Prue?" Piper asked.
After hearing the full report on TV, Prue switched off the television.
"Did you not just hear that?" Prue asked.
"What are you talking about? Hear what?" Paige replied.
"Another woman was just murdered just now. That makes eight murders in only three weeks. I knew her too. She worked with me at Bucklands for a while." Prue said.
"I'm sorry, are you okay?" Piper asked.
"I'm fine. I didn't know her all that well but that still doesn't make it okay." Prue replied.
"We just have to trust that the police will find out who did this." Paige said.
"Speaking of police, how's Andy been?" Piper asked Prue.
Prue stiffened up at the mention of his name. Andy was Prue's high school sweetheart and he always had a part of Prue's heart even though she would never admit it. They had tried to rekindle their romance a while ago but Andy had pulled away and Prue gave up but she was never happy about that ending.
"I don't care how he is." Prue replied.
"Oh come on, Prue. You were happiest with Andy. Way happier than you are now with Roger." Paige said.
"Why don't you mind your own damn business?" Prue snapped.
Paige rolled her eyes.
"What's eating you up?" Paige asked.
"Sorry. Forget it. Let's change the conversation. How was your night?" Prue asked.
"Piper's been talking about Phoebe a lot." Paige replied.
Prue turned around to face Piper with a cruel look on her face.
"Why would you talk about her?" Prue asked.
"I just don't want us to forget about our other sister, that's all."
"As far as I'm concerned, I have two sisters. Phoebe is dead to me." Prue said.
"Prue, you don't mean that." Piper said.
"Yes, I do. Now if you want to talk about Phoebe, then I'm leaving and going to bed. Goodnight." Prue said.
Prue walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to go to bed.
"I think that's pretty much it, Piper. Phoebe isn't a Halliwell anymore. Just move on, ok? See you in the morning."
Paige smiled at Piper and then walked up the stairs to go to bed.
"I have a feeling this isn't going to end well." Piper said to herself.
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