"Who was it?" I ask. "Who was the man?"

"Um, Paige, I can't...remember his name," she lies quickly. "That's it, yes; I can't remember his name."

There's an eerie silence for a good ten seconds. Prue is the first to speak. "Hey, did you say it was a kid named Martin? Was his last name Carraba?"

I wrinkle up my face, trying to remember. "Yeah...yeah, I think so. Why? Do you know him?"

"Sure I do! His older sister is one of my best friends...but she's in COLLEGE now." Prue stresses the word "college," glaring at Grams.

Grams pretends not to notice and turns to me again. "Paige, I'll get this all settled. In the meantime, why don't you...um...try to find Martin's house? It'd be nice if we could find him, bring him here. Since he dealt with the medics, he'd tell us what he told them. That way we could twist a cover story for your survival."

I sigh. But I know that it would be better for me to go find him, and Grams knows it too; just to keep my mind off things. But wait—there's school today, that's where Phoebe and Piper were going, right?

"School was cancelled, there was a thunderstorm last night and the school's power went out," Grams explains, reading my mind. "Phoebe and Piper were headed to the library to work on a project, Andy drove them."

"My boyfriend," Prue adds possessively.

Grams scoffs. "Yes, your boyfriend. Anyways, I'd expect your little friend to be home. Do you know where he lives?"

"Right across the street from my house, I can get there in a flash."

"As long as it's not an orb, alright?" Grams gives me a knowing smile. "The girls have bikes and helmets in the garage, so you'd best be on your way if you want to get the information before they find out you're alive."

"Yeah."

I walk down the stairs and naturally find the garage door. It's as if I know the manor inside out, even though I can never remember being inside of it. I'm almost in a trance, like a robot programmed to just move and not think about it.

And that's the way it is the entire three mile bike ride. I'm vaguely aware of the wind lapping my face and pulling back my hair, my legs willing the pedals to move quickly, my eyes darting back and forth around the street, but I'm not really thinking until I park the bike, laying it next to a streetlamp outside Martin's house.

I look back at the home that I'd only lived in for three days, then look away. I'm on a mission. I'm a robot. That I cannot forget.

After about a minute of inadvertent nail biting, hair twirling, and knuckle cracking, I muster up the courage to ring the doorbell.

DING, DONG!

The door clicks open and none other than Laura herself stands, staring back at me. She's gawking at my face and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe she's not so perfect after all.

"You're supposed to be DEAD!" she shrieks. "OH MY GOD!"

"Laura, what the hell are you screaming about?" asks Martin, coming to the door. He sees me and his face turns pale. "Laura, can you keep a secret?"

She nods distantly.

"Alright then, Paige...come inside."

He quickly shut the door behind.

"Are you alright? What HAPPENED? Why did you just make off like that? Paige, I heard you screaming in the alley, I tried to follow you, there was a man—he was grabbing at you and you just went POOF. But I'm glad you got away, but still, you scared me! Where have you been?"

"The Halliwells—" Laura scoffs, but I continue— "and I'm fine...thank you for caring about me. I had to make off the way I did, I couldn't let them...I had to...okay you guys, I have another secret. This one won't make much sense, but please," I beg, "trust me."

"I do."

"Me too," Laura adds quickly.

It's odd, seeing Laura in this environment. She's not popular, not self- obsessed. She's...normal. Like me, like Martin. I guess that she changed herself in public to fit in, and I can understand how she feels. I like this Laura so much better, though.

And with that, it all spills. The twinning with Phoebe, the séance, the discoveries, the magic, the witchcraft...then the accident, how I escaped, and the man that tried to capture me. I can feel a single tear run down my cheek but I quickly brush it away, entranced by their patient gazes.

Finally, I finish. "What did you tell the cops?" I ask.

To my surprise, Martin grins. "WE said nothing. Laura was there, too, and we just pretended to be normal bystanders, shocked by the chaos. Well," he says mysteriously, the smile widening, "the truth is, we're not ordinary kids. We've gone through five years of training...and I think, Laura, that we've just found our first charge."

"What? What's a charge?"

Martin just keeps grinning. "You know that you're half-whitelighter, right? Because of Sam?"

I nod.

"And you know what whitelighters are, right?"

My stomach gives a nasty twist. Are they...? No. They can't be. "They're witch protectors, brought back from the dead," I say automatically. "Like my father."

"Yes. Paige, Laura and I have been dead now for five years. We both died in a plane crash a while back, so we were both starting to train at the same time and became friends. We're...whitelighters. They told us when we came down to earth that our charge's identity would not matter, that we would be drawn to him or her until they needed us." Martin sighs. "Well, you need us now."

My assumptions are correct, and now I wonder: Did he mean to flirt with me? Does he still consider me his friend?

I guess, by the look on my face, he read my mind. "Paige, I still think you're one of my best friends," he assures me. "That's not against the rules...I think."

"It is too against the rules!" Laura cried indignantly. Then her voice softened. "But I won't tell...I love secret romance..."

Martin scoffs. "Yeah, that's what she was reading about before we crashed. What was that book called? Oh well. It was a flight headed to California, actually; we crashed in a forest. But everyone was dead before we hit, so we didn't feel anything," he adds quickly.

"Wow...I didn't think you guys, of all people, would be...you know, whitelighters. But that's cool!" I decide, clapping my hands together.

"Yeah, it is," they agreed.

"Well, it's good to stop acting like a bitch now," Laura laughs. "And now we don't have to be all secretive with you about our identities."

"Yeah, no more secrets! I was always horrible at keeping secrets, even when I was alive," he admits, laughing.

The phone rings.

"Huh? Who could that be?" Martin wonders. "We live here with another adult whitelighter, Brian, and usually no one calls. That's odd."

"Oh, it's Grams," I say automatically. "Wait...how'd I know that?"

"Your powers," Laura explains, "now go get the phone before she hangs up."

"Wait—should I tell her about you guys?"

All of a sudden, the two of them exchange glances and start communicating in this clickety-clack language with their tongues. They seem to be deep in thought on their decision and I watch in fascination. How could anyone make sense of that? After they talked for five seconds or so, though, I felt myself catching phrases.

'Should...tell?" I hear Martin clicking.

"Hm...too soon...the girls...don't think so."

"Okay, later...when...and bindings are released."

"What bindings?" I ask Martin.

"You could hear that? Dang, I forgot. You're half-whitelighter. Woops."

I shrug and pick up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, Paige? It's—"

"Grams, I know. Look, he didn't say anything to them, just pretended that he was just skateboarding and saw it happen. They think I'm dead."

"Good," she says in relief. "Then I think I can make a cover story. Come home soon, alright?"

"Sure, but what's your pl—"

She hangs up.

"Gee, thanks," I mutter. I turn back to Laura and Martin. "I think that Grams has a plan, but I'm not sure what. She didn't explain, but she said to come home. See you guys later?"

"Sure," says Laura. "Just remember...I'm still prissy-pink popular girl at school, so while you're there, just act like nothing's changed so people don't get suspicious. You know what? It's funny, I was just like one of those followers of mine when I was alive—now I'm the ringleader. Things change when you die and come back to earth five years later, huh?"

I laugh. "Bye."

"See ya Paige," Martin clicks at me.

When he does that, I realize: their language is all in the rhythm of the words. It's so simple! Why didn't I see that?

"Yeah, see ya," I click back.

We all burst into fits of giggles before I close the door.

Once I'm on the bike, I realize that I feel a lot better. I have people to talk to about magic now. I mean, sure, I can talk to Grams, but she's not my age—and Phoebe and her sisters didn't know anything about powers. I wonder; why is that? How come I'M the only one with the magic?

And then I remember Grams saying their powers were bound. That must be what Laura and Martin were clicking about when he said "bindings are released."

What's that supposed to mean?

All of a sudden, my bike lurches on the sidewalk and topples over. I land in the soft grass and hear my tires deflating and groan.

I get back up, rubbing my palms on my jeans. "Darn it," I murmur angrily as all the air escapes. There was a nail on the sidewalk that I ran over, so that's probably what did it.

"There you are!"

I turn around and the first thing I notice is his eyes. Not that they're special—it's just that half of me wants to welcome him and the other half wants to be very, very afraid...

And that, I discover when I recognize him, would probably be because he's the man from the alleyway.

I cry out, "You get away from me!" and desperately try to lift my bike and get away.

Too late. He covered his hand over my mouth, and once again I try to orb away from him to safety.

"I'm not going to hurt you..." I hear before the blue lights engulf me once more.

Only this time, I wasn't the one that conjured the blue lights. ' R&R PLZ!!