At some point during the time she sat staring at her text, Parker had fallen asleep. Her head laid in her arms over her text, and her back was hurting from the uncomfortable position. Though she knew if the consistent vibrating of her phone wasn't happening she would of still been sleeping. And speaking of which; Parker groggily reached over for her phone, squinting her tired eyes to see who was calling: Perri.
Parker slid off the lock and answered the call from her cousin, squinting to look at the clock in front of her as she did so; it was 2 am.
"Perri it's 2 in the morning. Why are you calling me?"
"Well hello to you too."
"Ugh sorry, I was sleeping. Like most people tend to do."
"Hahaha funny. Anyway, I was sleeping too. But about a half hour I woke up to get a bottle of water and I heard my mom. At first she was in the basement on the phone, I couldn't hear what she was saying but she sounded like, I dunno, worried or something. I was gonna go down but she came up and I hid, I feel like if she saw me she would be mad. Anyway, she had some little fit in the kitchen, threw her brand new phone and kicked something. Then she left."
"She left? Like took her keys and left."
"No she magically left."
"Your mom has powers too?"
"Apparently, it was so weird. It wasn't like those lights that Matt, Pru, or Leo remember. It was like something else."
"Like what?"
"She like got all blurry and like wavy then just disappeared."
"Weird."
"You're telling me."
"So that's why you're calling me?"
"Parker! This is serious. My mom is using magic, I'm pretty sure my dad still isn't home. Are your parents?"
"…"
Parker furrowed her eyebrows and went to get up to look out her window and see when she suddenly heard a loud bang. Jumping lightly from the scare of it, she stared at her door. Soon following the bang there were a serious of other noises then she heard voices. She made her way toward her door to see what was happening when there was another bang, this one louder.
Jumping again she pulled her phone up to her ear, "Perri there's something going on…"
"What?"
Another bang, this one even louder caused her to jump again and drop her phone. After this bang she heard a door fly open and a few set of feet run down the stairs. She then heard yelling, a voice sounding like her dad's was in the mix, and that made her move toward the door. Though as her hand touched the handle another bang sounded, this one the loundest and strongest. The house trembled lightly but with enough force to knock Parker off her feet.
She let out a soft yelp as she hit the floor and crawled backwards, her hands blindly reaching out for her phone. As she pulled it up to her ear she could hear Perri, "…going on? Are you ok? Parker? Parker?"
"I don't know. The house shook. Was there an earthquake?"
"No. I didn't feel anything. Are you ok?"
Before Parker could answer another bang sounded out and the house shook again, more violently this time.
"It did it ag.."
Another bang, this one sounding closer and another shake, one with enough force to cause things in her room to knock over. After this one, Parker felt herself shake then she suddenly dropped her phone and got up. Running to her door and pulling it open she ran out into the hallway, running toward her stairs, yelling, "Daaad? Moooom? Mattt?"
As she reached the stairs and went to step down the stairs the bang happened again, even louder now that she was out of her room, and another shake happened, the force of it causing her to lose her footing and fall forward down the stairs.
After a few hard tumbles and head bangs she landed on the connecting landing of the stairs. Groaning slightly she put her hand against her head which ached from banging against the floor. She heard a series of voices, a few which said her name. Then there were soft arms around her and they began pulling her back up the stairs.
Whoever was holding her stopped and pressed her against a wall. "Are you ok?"
It was Lily. She nodded her head and opened her eyes to stare at Lily's worried face. Her green eyes looked wider than usual and had a panicked look to them, but at the knowledge that she was fine they seemed to soften.
"What's going on?"
At her question, Lily seemed to not know what to say. Her mouth hung open for a moment then she closed it and just stared at her. Though as another bang sounded then a shake, Lily grabbed tightly onto her arms and nearly dragged her into hers and Matt's room. She slammed the door shut, and locked it, then pushed her backwards until she felt herself fall onto the bed. After she was sitting, Parker saw Lily's figure pacing back and forth in the dark.
"Lily?"
"Yes Parker?"
"Are you going to tell me?"
"I think you need to talk to your dad."
Lily stopped pacing and Parker could feel her eyes burning into her. Though as a loud howl sounded out then what sounded like a small explosion, she could feel Lily's eyes move from her to the door, just as Parker's had.
"Please stay here Parker."
Without another word, Lily shot through the door, and slammed it shut behind her. Parker stared wordlessly at the door, a confused expression across her face. After a few moments she felt herself grow scared, a type of scared she could remember feeling since she was little. All she wanted to do was run into her dad's arms. Because of that feeling she quickly got off the bed, a little too fast, and ran out of the room.
Practically flying down the stairs and landing into whatever commotion, she ignored the mess and destruction that greeted her and directed her sight onto a tall, sandy haired man.
"Daddy!"
The man turned to look at her. At first he looked horrified but the expression was soon replaced by relief as Parker dove into his arms. He held her tight against his chest, stroking her light hair as he did. After a few moments Parker pulled away and looked up at her dad.
"What happened?"
Her dad looked down at her, an uncertain look across his face. He then diverted his eyes to look behind her. Parker turned around to look and took note of half her family standing there.
Uncle Chris and Aunt Bianca were standing off to the side, both covered in small cuts. Her Aunt Melinda was hovering her hands, which were emitting a strange light, over her Uncle Zeplin. Her second Aunts, P.J, Tamora, and Kat were standing against a far war, all three looking slightly beat up.
Parker then turned her head slightly to look at Matt and Lily who were standing by the stairs, a few feet from them was her mom who was staring in shock at Parker. Next to her mom was her grandma and her sister, Phoebe.
She went to ask again what was going on but her dad's grip tightened on her and he pushed her toward the stairs, speaking as he did so, "Kori, take her upstairs. I'll be up soon."
Her mom nodded at her dad's words and wrapped her arm around her daughter, walking her up the stairs. Parker looked back at her family, feeling her face redden as she noticed they were all staring at her.
The moment her mom and her reached her bedroom door, Parker could hear an array of voices sound out. But they were soon cut off as her mom closed the door to her room. Suddenly the light turned on and it's abrupt brightness caused Parker to stumble backwards a bit. Her head was spinning and the feeling of hitting her head against the stairs hit her.
Her mom's hands sat lightly on her arms and led her toward her bed. Parker crawled onto it, lying across the covers. She felt the bed shift as her mom sat down but she didn't open her eyes to look at her.
They both sat there in an uncomfortable silence for what seemed like hours before Parker dared to speak, "Mom what happened?"
For a few minutes she heard nothing but her mom's light breathing then a sigh. Parker opened her eyes to stare at her mom. After letting her eyes adjust to the bright light, she gasped lightly at the sight of her mom. When she had been downstairs, she hadn't seen anything wrong with her mom. But looking at her now, she could. While she had no cuts on her, she was covered in dirt and what looked like dried blood, there were what looked like bruises under some of the dirt, but she wasn't sure.
Parker let out a whimper and pulled herself toward her mom, wrapping her arms around her. "Mommy, are you ok?"
Her moms arms wrapped around her and her head rested on top of Parkers. They stayed like this until her bedroom door opened and her dad stepped in. He stared at the two of them then coughed. Her mom took this as a sign and pulled away from her daughter. Her lips pressed against her forehead and Parker leaned into it, but then her mom backed away and stood next to her dad. Her hands rested on his shoulder before she left the room, closing the door behind her.
Parker stared at her dad, a confused expression across his face. Their brown eyes connected and she could see her dad appeared equally as confused. Her dad was then moving toward her bed, and taking a seat on the edge of it. His hands folded across his lap and he looked down at them, avoiding his daughters stare.
She bit her bottom lip softly as she stared at her dad. Part of her wanted to freak out and ask what happened a hundred times, but some logical, mature part of her was able to hold her back. But she knew it wouldn't have control for long. She was confused, and scared, and worried; it was overwhelming.
Suddenly her dad turned to look at her. He took a deep breath and spoke, "So I assume you would like to know what happened?"
Parker nodded her head at her dad's question, but didn't say anything.
"You know we did a lot years ago to give you the life you have now, right?"
Parker nodded her head again, but then decided to ask, "What exactly did you do?"
Her dad opened her mouth to speak but then closed it. He appeared to think for a moment before opening his mouth to speak. "It'll be easier to understand if I explain some things. I know you're aware of the Power of Three, the magic that your grandma and her sisters used. And I've told you about Twice Blessed, the Power of Three that my siblings and myself make up. But each of my cousins and their siblings make up at power. Aunt Phoebe's three daughters form a Power of Three, though not nearly as powerful as the original or my families. Aunt Paige's daughters form a Power of Two. All of the cousins together form a Power of Eight. We were all powerful on our own and in our own family's powers but together we were unstoppable."
He stopped to take a breath and stare at his daughter before continuing, "Growing up, we have always used magic, it was in our blood and who we were. Our parents always seemed tired from demon fighting but we enjoyed it so much, none of us could see how our parents could hate it. At least we couldn't until we each started having our own families."
"I met your mother fighting a darklighter. He had the upper hand and when I feared for the worst, there she was. She had an active power of telekinesis and was able to force the darklighters arrow back at him. We obviously got married and had Matt, we were overjoyed. While my mom was a nervous wreck at having a grandchild, I was excited. Of course there were demon attacks still but never when Matt was around, so I never worried. Soon after Matt was born, Chris and Bianca had Pru and Leo and a few weeks later P.J had Phiona. It was exciting to all of us, to have these tiny little children who could come into their powers at any time. I think we were most excited for that."
"And soon they did. By the time they were all about 1 year old, each of them started gaining powers. First it was Matt who started orbing himself all over the city, it was a constant game of hide and go seek Matt. Then Pru started conjuring things left and right then Leo followed with energy balls. Phiona, following after her mother, would continuously beam her mother to her side at all hours of the day. It started getting harder to fight demons so we set up a schedule of who would be watching the magical toddlers, it was mostly Billie and her fiancé who could watch over them. And things got easier for a bit."
"But then both Tamora and Kat decided to have children around the same time. Tamara had Jenna and Kat followed with Tessa. Both of them came out of the wombs with telekinetic orbing and after a few months developed a trait that enabled them to send out a jingle for their mothers. It was mass confusion and if things weren't bad enough, Billie and Melinda got pregnant. Billie had Mason, Serena, and Kristen, triplets who after 3 months could use telekinesis. Melinda had Paulina who came with the ability to slow molecules down, which somehow came in handy. The newborn would always be so unsettled with the noise her cousins made that she would slow down the things they were orbing and conjuring; it made it easier for us to catch the dangerous items."
"After that we agreed that we needed to let the current generation grow a bit before expanding our families. Four years later, Matt is 6 years old and coming into telekinetic orbing, Pru and Leo are starting to shimmer and Phiona started beaming. Now we have children who can all transport themselves to their parents. And they did it often, quite a few times during a battle. But we just hired magical help to help care for the children when we couldn't."
"But when you, Perri, and Peyton were born, all in the same three months did we grow worried. We weren't ready to deal with any newborns with powers. The option to bind your powers came up but then more attacks started. With our growing family, we were a target. That's when we decided something other than binding your powers needed to be done."
"We dropped all of you off at your great grandfather's home one night, with Billie's triplets, each of us unsure if we could ever see you again. It was heartbreaking and unsettling, but we knew what needed to be done. The Power of Eight, a Power of Nine with Billie, combined with The Power of Three and we made a Power of Twelve. Your mom, Uncle Coop, Zeplin, Bianca, Alexus, Lyndon, and Owen all gathered with us also. My mom, Aunt Phoebe, and Aunt Paige wrote up a strongly worded spell and we stood together, ready to close the underworld. We knew whatever we were doing was temporary, but we hoped with the strong force we were coming with, it would hold for many decades."
"The source of the spell was the Power of Three and we had to protect that. We stood around them and outside of us stood our spouses. We each chanted and when demons started to attacked, fended them off. It was harsh and brutal, and the battle seemed to last days, though it had only been hours. We were sure exactly what we did, but we somehow blocked access from the underworld; meaning you could enter or leave it. Satisfied, we collected our children and went home to bind each of your powers. It was hard to bind the three new cousins, unknowing to what powers you could have had, but it was important that we did it."
Her dad shot her an apologetic look, after the bit about her powers but continued, "You see Parker, what happened tonight, what's been happening recently, we're not sure what it is. We still have no access to the underworld and whatever attacked tonight was strong. We've been tracking it for awhile now, but we thought it was nothing. And were hoping that after tonight, it's gone."
Parker stared for a moment at her dad after he spoke. She hadn't known in depth what had happened and why they binded the family magic, but now she had a bit more understanding. It was a necessary action. "Do you think it's a demon?"
"Honestly I'm not sure Parker, we couldn't see it. It was too fast moving for us to see what it was. But it was strong. Let's just hope that was the last of it."
Parker nodded her head then yawned loudly.
"You need to go to sleep. I'll let you stay home from school tomorrow because of what happened."
Her dad leaned over and hugged her, he kept the hug for a few moments before pulling away. He grabbed the blanket at the end of her bed and pulled it up over her. Parker laid on her side, resting her head on her pillow as her dad put the blanket on her. As he went to leave the room, Parker accepted sleep almost immediately and could vaguely hear her dad say something about not repeating what happened tonight.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Zeplin is Melinda's husband. He is a witch with an active power of 'calling'.
Alexus is Tamora's boyfriend. He was a demon who made a bargain to be human; he has one human lifetime before his powers are stolen.
Lyndon is P.J's husband. He is a witch with an active power of 'levitation'.
To answer weiliya, Bianca is still a Phoenix, but because it's a new future, much about her has changed. More on her will come in future chapters.
