Chapter three
The cursed bracelet
Wyatt and Kennedy weren't dating anymore, but they were still friends. Wyatt thought it was only fair to tell Dakota his secret as well, so Kennedy wouldn't have to keep it from her. Both girls had done well to keep the secret.
To celebrate her ninth birthday, Melinda didn't want a mortal party. She wanted to attend a unicorn show in the magic realm. Since Alyssa knew about magic, Melinda invited her to go.
Normally witches needed to cast a spell to open a door leading to the magic realm. However Andy, Leo, Paige and Coop were able to orb/beam everyone there. Billie and Christy stayed at the manor to babysit: Passion, Aria, Penny and Mackenzie.
The magic realm was beautiful, and had a strong magical presence that was hard to adjust to. Unicorns and dragons could be seen flying in the sky, along with witches on brooms. All kinds of creatures could be found in the magic realm including: fairies, leprechauns, gnomes. Witches, white-lighters and Cupids.
There were many places in the magic realm, known as cities in the mortal realm. There was Loveland, rainbow skies, fairy fountain and many more. Magic school was also located in the magic realm, in a town called magic central, this is where all the cities connected. The best thing about the magic realm was that it was shielded and invisible to all evil.
"What brings the charmed ones here" a female witch asked.
"My daughter Melinda is celebrating her ninth birthday at the unicorn show" Piper replied
"Well in the case take brooms or you'll be late"
"It's fine, we have orbers and beamers."
Andy orbed to Unicorn fields with Prue and Paris. Leo orbed after them with Piper. Coop beamed there with Phoebe, Patty and P.J., who was still grounded from her powers. Paige orbed there with both Henry's and Melinda orbed there with Alyssa. The others joined them on their own.
Unicorn fields was unbelievable, filled with millions of unicorns and well-kept fields of grass. Magetic and beautiful creatures, unicorns were. As big as a pony, with a pure white coat and a golden horn. They were loyal and gentle creatures, said to bring good luck.
The show took place in the north of unicorn fields. There were too many to count seats laid out on the grass. The viewers took their seats as a guy stood in-front of them. This man was a witch, who used a simple spell to amplify his voice.
"Welcome creatures, mortal guests and witches…to the 2016 unicorn show" The guy welcomed.
The unicorns flew up into the air and performed a few simple tricks. Pairs got scared and started crying, she was scared of everything. The other children were clapping and gasping in amazement.
For the rest of the day all Melinda could talk about was the unicorn show. Chris got so irritated he suggested Melinda take Aria up to her room and tell her all about it. Melinda took his suggestion and orbed up to her room with two month old Aria.
Meanwhile Penny was lying awake in the play pen. Patty was watching her curiously and seriously. After a moment Penny began to cry, startled Patty beamed away.
"Can I feed her" P.J. asked as Phoebe took Penny from the play pen.
"Sure, go sit on the couch" Phoebe agreed
P.J. placed herself on the couch, Phoebe placed Penny on P.J.'s lap. Phoebe left the room for a moment and returned with a bottle of milk. She showed P.J. how to feed her and left her to it.
Leo walked up to Melinda's room at bedtime, stood in the door way and watched for a moment. For some reason Melinda was amusingly changing Aria's diaper. Melinda then placed her sister in her toy stroller to bring her on a walk.
"Ok birthday girl, why don't you take that walk to my room and put your sister to bed" Leo suggested
"Ok daddy" Melinda replied.
In Leo and Piper's room Melinda placed Aria on her bed and picked out pajamas for her. She wasn't aware her parents were just outside the room watching her. Melinda dressed her sister and carried her over to the crib. She had to use her power of levitation to be able to reach over the crib, and gently placed Aria down in it. As soon as she realized what was going on, Aria began to cry.
"We'll take it from here, good night sweetie" Piper stated.
"Ok goodnight mommy, daddy, Aria."
In their room Paige and Henry were having trouble getting Mackenzie asleep. Mackenzie was screaming because she knew it was bedtime and she hated it. That's when Kat came in and saved the night.
"Let me try" Kat offered, Henry passed Mackenzie to her.
"Hush little baby don't you cry" as started sinning Mackenzie fell silent.
Kat continued to sing as she rocked her sister. By the end of the song Mackenzie was fast asleep. Kat gave her back to Henry and orbed to her room. Paige was shocked, singing hadn't worked for her.
Prue and Andy had found the trick to getting Passion to sleep. The trick was putting Passion in the same crib as Pairs. They weren't sure why but something about sleeping with her sister comforted Passion. However there was still no luck in getting Preston to fall asleep in his own bed.
The next day Melinda got off the bus at school and was on her way to the swings, this is where she met Alyssa every morning. She was stopped by a girl her age who she had never seen before. This girl had short blonde hair with bright green eyes, she introduced herself as Hannah.
"Are you Melinda Halliwell, the third grader who had her birthday yesterday" Hannah asked
"That's me, why?"
"I got you a gift."
Hannah reached into her jean pocket and pulled out a cute little pink bracelet. Melinda loved it at first sight and put it on her right wrist right away. Hannah then wished her a happy belated birthday and ran off towards the playground. Melinda ran over to Alyssa and showed her the bracelet.
Melinda assumed Hannah was a new girl at school, and it didn't occur to her how a new girl would know who she was or that it had been her birthday the day before. Melinda never saw Hannah in class, she hadn't reached the split grades yet. She didn't see her at lunch or at recess either. In fact she didn't see her again the rest of the day.
After school that day Melinda was having trouble getting her locker open. She couldn't remember the correct combination of her lock, which was weird since she had never had a problem before. By the time she got it open and left the building all the busses were gone.
She sighed went back in the school, went in the bathroom and tried orbing home. Her orbing power wasn't working, she tried her other powers which didn't work correctly. She attempted to leave the bathroom in hopes of using the office phone to call Coop to pick her up. However the janitor had just locked the door, so she was stuck inside the bathroom. She called out for Andy, who heard and orbed to her seconds later.
"Uncle Andy my powers are acting weird" Melinda said.
"Who so" Andy asked.
"My orbing isn't working at all, and when I try to orb something to me it misses my hand and falls to the ground."
"That's weird, take my hand I'll bring you up to the elders" Andy stated holding out his hand.
This was the first time Melinda had ever gone "up there" to see the elders. It met her expectations of what it looked like. Andy brought her over to the many Elders, some looked young and some looked like elders. Melinda explained her problem and demonstrated.
"Something seems to be blocking your powers miss Halliwell. Have you recently received any new jewelry or accessories" the head Elder, Oscar, asked.
"Yes a girl gave me this bracelet today as a birthday present" Melinda answered and lifted her hand to show Oscar her bracelet.
"Do you know this girl?"
"No I only met her today, she said her name was Hannah"
"Have you seen her since?"
"No."
"Anything odd happen after she gave this too you, before you realized your powers were gone?"
"Only mortal trouble, my lock combo didn't work, I missed my bus, got locked in the bathroom."
"Cassie, would you summon a leprechaun please" Oscar asked one of the other Elders who nodded and orbed out.
"It may have been a demotic child or vampire child, maybe even a warlock child who gave this to you, it may be cursed with bad luck" Oscar explained to Melinda.
Cassie returned with a leprechaun, who Melinda didn't recognise. Though of course it had been a few years since her last visit with them. The leprechaun asked Melinda to remove the bracelet so he could examine it. However as hard as she tried the bracelet wouldn't come off. The leprechaun examined it while still on Melinda's wrist, and identified a bad luck curse as well as a bad timing curse.
Later that evening Melinda sat on a chair in the attic, as her family tried all their powers to get the bracelet off. Orbing and beaming didn't work and drained their energy. Piper's blow up power and Tamora's fire power did damage only to Melinda. Wyatt healed the burns on her arm and hand. There wasn't a spell in the book of shadows to remove it either.
They had to give up for the night everyone's powers were drained and they were all too weak to do anything else. Melinda attempted to put up her orb shield to protect her during the night, but it would only go halfway. Wyatt volunteered to stay up the whole night and use his orb shield to protect her. He used a spell to keep himself alert and awake.
The next day both Melinda and Wyatt were granted permission to stay home from school. Melinda because or her horrible luck and timing, and Wyatt to protect her. The only adult that was able to stay home was Coop, Andy would be home soon and Piper said she would finish by noon.
Wyatt had to stay next to Melinda the whole day in case she needed his orb shield. This resulted in Wyatt and Melinda bonding and getting to know each other. Melinda was embarrassed she needed help keeping her food off her clothes and the floor, getting to the bathroom on time. Wyatt helped her out and didn't make a big deal about it or tease her.
"When I was around Preston's age I used to orb mom all around the world in her sleep" Wyatt recalled as he sat with Melinda in his room.
"I could just imagine her face" Melinda replied laughing.
"You were too young to remember, but one Halloween I casted a spell that turned everyone but myself into animals" Wyatt laughed.
"Oh no! What was I?"
"A chicken I think"
"You were so bad" Melinda stated
"You're the one who caused a potion to make us all switch bodies" Wyatt recalled
"Oh gosh I somewhat remember that."
"I remember when mom and dad told me and Chris you were going to be born. I was excited and happy, smiling too. When you were born I was at the hospital and I got to hold you, you were so tiny at the time" Wyatt recalled.
"I wish I could remember that"
"You may not remember the day we meet but I always will"
"I was so protective of you, never wanted anything to hurt you, that will never change" Wyatt stated.
Melinda smiled, she always knew her brother was protective of her. Though until that day she hadn't really known how much he cared for her. It was one of those rare sibling moments that reminded them both, of how they were and always be connected, and how much they enjoyed having each other. It reminded them of what it means to have a sibling or siblings.
The moment was ruined when a demon of some sort blinked in to attack. Wyatt activated the orb shield and the demon didn't try to get through it. Instead it blinked out, back to his hideout.
"How did it go sir" Hannah asked.
"You did well you free to go child, I forgot she's a charmed one. The brat was with her brother, the eldest one who has an orb shield. I'll find a way to get him out of my way' the demon responded frustrated and determined.
"Wyatt, Wyatt" P.J. came yelling into room.
"What is it" Wyatt asked.
"I just had a premonition, which hasn't happened in a few years, I was starting to wonder if I still had it"
"P.J., get to the point"
"Right sorry, the demon that just attacked he's after you now, I didn't see his plan" P.J. informed.
Chris overheard the whole thing and wasn't going to let anything happen to his brother and sister. He sense where the demon was and sent Tamora to deal with him. Tamora orbed there unprotected and almost got stabbed with a knife. Quick thinking caused her to orb out of the way just in time.
Confused the demon was off guard for a moment, this gave Tamora just enough time to orb behind him and set him on fire. She stood around and watched him burn until he was fully vanquished. Hannah blinked in, which meant she was a warlock child. She fell to the ground and her eyes changed from red to green. She had just been a possessed witch, must have worn contacts to hide her red eyes when she approached Melinda at school.
Tamora took Hannah's hand and orbed them back to the manor. She explained everything to her family and knew she was in trouble. Leo took Hannah to the Elders to figure out which family she belonged too.
"Tamora Piper Mitchell, what were you thinking going there alone to vanquish a demon you knew nothing about" Paige asked sternly.
"My family was at stake, I will always protect my family" Tamora replied and orbed up to her room leaving her parents shocked with her replied.
Melinda came down stairs with Wyatt holding the bracelet up. It had come off and her powers were back to normal. Tamora wasn't punished and instead given a warning not to be so naive and stupid the next time. Chris never told anyone he was the one who sent Tamora to vanquish the demon. He didn't want to admit he actually cared about his siblings.