Chapter Two
Chris walked over to Leo and put his hand on his shoulder. However, he then began to freak out as his hand went through Leo's shoulder.
"Ah! Dad!" Chris jumped back, afraid of what he'd done. Leo, however, went on without noticing.
"What's going on?! Am I dead? No, if I were a ghost, wouldn't they be able to see me? I mean... Oh my god. I'm dead!" Chris fisted his hair and then threw his arms out to the side. A pen in the kitchen shattered and spilled ink everywhere. Chris didn't notice it but Phoebe and Leo did.
While the other two went to examine the pen, Chris tried to calm down.
"Y-You're not dead, Chris. Remember, you're not from this time. You can't die. Even if you did, I'm sure you'd... vanish or go back to your own time or something. Yea. You definitely wouldn't become a ghost. So you can't be dead. This is just like that time you were fading from existence... except you look solid.. To yourself at least." Chris took deep breaths.
"I don't understand. How did it break like that? It's in a million pieces." Phoebe was talking in the kitchen and Leo was looking around the room for an intruder her couldn't see.
"Careful, Phoebe. I don't think we're alone in here." Leo warned. Chris's head snapped to his father. Could he tell he was there?
"Dad?" Chris asked, sudden hope spreading over him. He ran up to Leo and started waving his hand in front of his face. "Come on, Leo. Figure it out. I'm right here!"
"Do you sense someone?" Phoebe asked, also on guard now.
Leo didn't respond for a minute, just looked beyond Chris and around the room. He shook his head and Chris's hopes fell. He frowned and stared at his father with disbelief.
"No. I must have imagined it because of the pen." Leo explained. "We should find someone who knows the underworld really well, besides a demon. They can help up look for Chris down there."
"Dad..." Chris whined softly under his breath, wishing Leo could hear him calling. Why? Why was he like this?
– – – –
Two days. Two days! Chris had been like this for two whole days! He couldn't contact Leo no matter what he tried! After visiting his mother at Magic School and getting no response from her either, despite her motherly instincts, Chris had resigned himself to sitting in the corner and being emo.
Would he spend the rest of his life like this? Forever watching his family but unable to touch them or talk to them?
"Chris..."
Chris looked around for the small voice that had spoken to him.
"Did you say something, Wyatt? Hm? Did you learn a new word?" Piper asked, kneeling by her son. Wyatt's first word had been said a while ago but he never seemed to repeat it like a normal child.
"Chris." Wyatt waved his arms slightly in the direction of Chris's form, leaning on the wall, eyes wide in shock.
"Chris? Oh, do you miss him too? Don't worry, hunny. Your family's gonna find Chris and he'll be just fine. I promise." Piper tapped him on the nose, smiling at him. Everything he did, she found adorable.
"Wyatt?" Chris got to his feet and walked over to the playpen. Piper walked away but Wyatt was looking directly into Chris's eyes. "You can see me, Wyatt?"
Wyatt reached his hand out like he always did to Chris. Usually, Chris would take his hand and sing some goofy song for him or pick him up and hold him. However, after several attempts at touching objects, Chris was afraid to reach out to the child.
Chris's hand hesitantly started forward and touched his brother's. Chris smiled and let out a happy little laugh. He closed his hand around Wyatt's and nearly cried.
"Oh my god." he breathed out. "You can touch me..." Chris reached out and touched Wyatt's face, overjoyed to be able to touch anything or anyone. He almost forgot how good it was to feel solid.
Bells rang out in the background as Leo orbed in. Suddenly, Chris's hands went right through Wyatt as the child looked at his father. Chris's heart stopped. He was back to being a nothing all over again.
"Hey, Piper." he smiled at her.
"Leo!" Piper stood up to hug him but instantly had to sit down afterward. Chris would have apologized but he knew he couldn't be heard anyway. "What took you so long? Did you find Chris?"
"No..." Leo frowned. "I've tried everything. I don't know what else to do but I can't just surrender to the idea that he's-."
"No!" Piper cut him off. "You're right. He's not. I'm telling you, I KNOW he's alive. I can just tell. Leo, have you tried summoning him?"
"Well the girls have been working so hard looking for him other ways that they haven't had the time. I'll go suggest it, but Piper... What if it doesn't work?" Leo sighed, clearly upset by their lack of success.
"Then bring the girls to me and we can brainstorm." Piper looked at Wyatt, who was playing with Chris's fingers while the whitelighter watched his parents. She looked a little confused but played it off as a child's game.
"Mom..." Chris breathed out, gazing upon his mother with sad eyes.
– – – – –
Chris paced back and forth in the attic while the girls set up the summoning gems. He was wondering if it would work too. He walked over to the book and flipped a page. He'd learned that morning that he could still touch the book and he still effected things if he sat down on them... well, not couches but grams's rocking chair moved.
Leo glanced momentarily at the book, unsure if he'd seen it move or not. Deciding he was imagining things again, he turned back to the girls. Together, they began to read off the spell to summon a person.
Chris found something about it odd. That wasn't just a normal summoning spell. They were using a spell to summon the dead. To summon a ghost into the room. Didn't they think was still alive?
"Hello, whitelighter." Chris spun around and jumped. Parsel?! But how? Why couldn't the girls seem him? Was he under the same spell as Chris? Did he do it to himself?
"Parsel..." Chris tried to seem calm.
"You know, you're very hard to kill when you stick around hallowed ground like that Magic School." Parsel cracked his fingers.
"Yea, well I'm very hard to kill either way," Chris growled, getting ready for a fight. Parsel chuckled and ran straight up to Chris, smacking him into a nearby desk. It broke into hundreds of pieces beneath him and he groaned.
"What was that?" Paige asked, looking at the shattered desk.
"I dunno. We said the spell right, didn't we?" Phoebe asked, checking their wording.
"Well nothing came to the circle." Paige was walking ever closer to the desk. "I don't think Chris is dead. But I think he was trying to make contact with the desk."
'Yea. Nice try, Paige.' Chris thought as he stood up and waved to throw the demon away. But nothing happened. Chris tried again and his eyes widened.
"Heh heh. Your powers are useless on me, whitelighter. At least while you're under my spell," Parsel laughed. "So just give in and die peacefully."
"Not on your life." Chris ran at the demon and caught him in the gut before shoving him toward the summoning circle. When he hit it, sparks flew and whatever the demon was using to conceal himself was broken.
"Ah! Parsel!" Phoebe jumped back, not having any real fighting powers of her own.
"Parsel?" Leo began to glare. "Where's my son, Parsel!?" he yelled as he advanced on the snake demon.
"Son? I know of no son. I just know of a whitelighter who I was hired to take out of the way. I'm a demon for hire, you know. Good luck finding what you can't see." Parsel laughed and shimmered out.
"No! Get back here, Parsel!" Leo yelled to the room. Chris huffed a little. He felt weaker than he should have. And why wouldn't his powers work? He stared at his hands, shaken and scared.
– – – –
