Chapter Eleven
"Chris?!" Wyatt's loud voice was heard throughout the entire manor. The ancient home rumbled with the sounds of his worried voice and his frantic footsteps as he ran towards his younger brother's room. Somehow, deep inside of him, he'd already known what to expect, but it was still a shock to see the bare place. The room was in its usual state of neat disarray, but all that was missing was the young brown-haired man smiling at his older brother, wondering why he was making such a fuss. He wasn't there. Chris wasn't there, again. Wyatt couldn't help but feel that he kept failing his younger brother, over and over again, as they struggled against the demons that had been after them. It wasn't fair. Chris was so young, and it was always he who got caught in the crossfire. The demons came for Wyatt, the Twice-Blessed, yet Chris was always the one who got stuck in the middle. Thanks to him, Wyatt was still alive, but Chris would have to bear the scars of his self-sacrifice forever.
Now, it was happening all over again. Chris had disappeared from his room, not himself. Wyatt had no idea what his brother would do in that situation, but he knew for certain that the outcome wouldn't be a good one. The blond stopped, frozen in Chris's room. He stared at the mirror, where only a short while ago his brother had gazed at his reflection. Wyatt just couldn't react at the moment. Once more, something terrible had happened just under his nose, and he hadn't been able to stop it.
He could barely hear the steps of both his mother and Jennifer, who'd followed him out of the attic. Seeing the empty room and the state of the young male witch, they stopped in the doorway. Their expressions couldn't have been more different. While Piper projected worry for her younger son, fear for what would happen to him, and nervousness about how her elder son was reacting, Jennifer was the complete opposite. The young witch was ready, prepared as she hadn't been in quite a while. She'd been tracking seemingly random targets as Malachi sought to find the origin of strong magic. Now that he'd found it, she had the feeling that he would do anything to remain close to it. That meant that as soon as he showed his face, Jennifer would simply have to stick her dagger through his heart, the dagger which she'd gotten used to until she considered it merely an extension of her hand. As soon as the spirit was gone, her beloved would be avenged, and her task would be finished.
At the moment, though, that was the last thought going through the minds of the other magical beings in the room. The only voice in their head was frantically screaming the name of the young man once more. Chris, it was saying, Chris is gone!
He was gone, the room was empty. Piper let out a shuddering breath as she stepped further into the room and allowed herself to sit on the bed. It was at times like these when she thought it wasn't fair that she'd been given these powers and that she'd passed them on to the next generation. Her children deserved normal lives, and not what she'd given them. Sometimes, she felt as if she'd failed in her task as mother. She was supposed to protect her babies, and yet, because of her, they were in danger every minute of their lives, a danger which became glaringly real in situations such as these and the ones dealing with the Seer only a short time ago. Chris was gone, again, and now Piper didn't know what she could do about it, or how she could find her little Peanut again.
"Malachi has Chris." The truth was pronounced in a whisper by blond man in the room. He could barely believe it. He'd seen the mist floating out of the man in the parking lot, and he'd never suspected that it had gone into his brother. He knew Chris better than anybody, and yet, he hadn't been able to tell when his brother had started acting weird. Maybe if he'd realized this earlier, he would have been able to force the spirit out, before it took Chris away… before it made his little brother vanish again. But he hadn't. He hadn't noticed the signs, and now he would have to pay for it.
He turned to Jennifer, a strange look on his face. His blue eyes burned with an intensity that was rarely seen, even when on the deadliest of demon hunts. This was a look he reserved only for special cases: when a member of his family was put in danger. When that happened, Wyatt would not rest until they were back, safe and sound. He had to find his brother. "How did you find Malachi before?" he asked her.
His voice seemed to hold a tone of authority, and, despite herself, Jennifer felt her back straightening as she gave him an immediate answer. "I scry for him. He's usually not that hard to find." Jennifer grimaced. "But now that he's gotten the power to orb I don't think it's going to be that easy." With that ability, he would be able to appear somewhere and disappear within the frame of just a few seconds, making him untraceable.
Wyatt groaned inwardly, but his mother wasn't as bothered by the news as he was. "But Chris is strong. His spirit wouldn't have been drowned that easily," Piper said, seeming much stronger now that she knew that she had to search for her lost son. "Chris is still inside of there, inside of his body, I'm sure of it."
Jennifer shrugged under Piper's potent gaze. She honestly had never worried about the other people who'd been possessed by the evil spirit, not since her fiancé, at least. Ever since him, it seemed that everyone else's souls were just collateral damage. It was a cold view of the world that Jennifer had, but it had kept her sane during the many months that she'd been after this being. "It's possible that he's still alive in there, I guess. If he's really as strong as you say he is." She did not voice her inner thoughts. If he's really as strong as all that, why wasn't he able to fight Malachi off? Why didn't he force the spirit out of him?
Ignorant to Jennifer's inner questions, Piper turned to Wyatt. "You see? Your brother's still in there, and if he's still there, you should still be able to sense him." The Halliwell Matriarch knew better than anyone about the bond that the brothers seemed to share. Sometimes it was even like they read each other's minds. For a while, they'd seemed to be growing apart, but the recent events had thrown them together with a vengeance. If anybody could find Chris, it was Wyatt.
Wyatt briefly closed his eyes, pulling on the special link that he shared with the younger man. He had special links with most of his family, and was able to access them at will. At the moment, though, he was just searching for the familiar brand of magic, the familiar voice and personality, everything that made Chris himself. He grasped for it, pulled at it, but didn't receive an answer. Frantically, he tugged on the line even harder. Still, there was nothing. With a gasp, he opened his eyes. "I can't sense him. He must be blocking me or in the Underworld."
"It doesn't matter," Jennifer said, pulling the dagger out of her pocket carefully. "We don't have to find him." She seemed to start having a plan in mind.
Piper, however, was oblivious to that as she turned on the woman and screamed, "What do you mean we don't have to find him? He's my baby! We have to save him!" She couldn't believe that this witch would be so callous as to leave her younger son in the grips of a being such as Malachi. It was downright cruel, and if this woman thought that Piper would take it calmly, she was extremely wrong.
Jennifer merely looked annoyed at the interruption, but she didn't voice her objections. Instead, she continued as if the frantic interjection had never been made. She didn't want to annoy a Charmed One after all. "I know Malachi," she said earnestly, "I've been hunting him for ages, and if it's one thing that I'm sure of, is that he's going to come back. He never actually got what he came looking for anyway."
As she spoke, she looked at Wyatt in the eyes. He knew what she meant. He nodded. "Me," he said. "He wants me, and he's going to come back to get me." It was a terrible truth, but it had to be mentioned.
"So all we have to do is be ready for him when he returns," the young woman said, her teeth glinting in her smile. The sparkles her teeth made matched those of the dagger, giving it a bloodthirsty gleam. "We're going to need a plan."
(A/N) So, now Chris has disappeared, everyone has accepted that he is possessed, and they have to come up with a plan to save him from Malachi. What do you think the plan will be? Will they all even agree on the same plan? And what is Malachi doing in the meantime? Questions, more questions! I just love knowing what you guys think will happen later on! Oh, and btw, Happy Halloween! I think I timed this story well, don't you? Or, sort of well...
Anyway, thanks to those who added this to their Faves and Alerts. Super special thanks to those who reviewed: darcie-magicae-anima, dragon lover, and Fanycharmed! I hope you guys got a lot of Halloween candy! And, please please review this chapter, lemme know what you liked or didn't like. And, I'll see you all next week! Fill up the sad little box! Bye!