Disclaimer: I wish I owned Charmed, but wishes --SOB-- don't often come
true, apparently...
"Take me back," he said suddenly. "Take me back to the shelter. I don't belong here!" He sprang up from the bed and made a wild dash for his life, running through the halls—and he found that he got lost. This place had a million twists and turns, it was much bigger than the orphanage. He spotted a set of stairs and ran.
The man appeared in a flurry of twinkling blue lights, guarding the door and blocking his only escape. "Please, listen to me—"
"Listen to you?! I don't even KNOW you! Leave me alone, you can't do this to me! I live somewhere else!"
"Calm down—"
"Not until you take me back!"
"Please, Chris, you have to trust me—"
"How can you expect me to trust you when you're a complete stranger?" he spat.
That one seemed to be like a slap in the face to Leo. "I know you're scared and I know that this has to be hard—"
"No, it doesn't have to be hard. You can take me back to my home and pretend this never happened. That would be quite easy!"
"You'll die if you go back there!" Leo finally shouted, getting his attention. "You're in danger. Now that we've found you, demons can track your location. You're a target. Without us to protect you, you could die."
Chris looked him straight in the eye, his stubborn will not allowing him to give up this fight. "Then let's just see what happens," he growled. He tried to push Leo out of his way and head for the door but Leo held him back. Enraged and terrified, Chris struggled out of his grasp and threw his hands up.
Leo froze. Chris sighed in relief and pried himself out of the man's arms.
This man, his father? It could be true. After all that had happened, Chris was open to accepting more freakish news. But just because this guy claimed to be his dad didn't give him any right to kidnap him. Justifying his actions with that last thought, Chris opened the door hesitantly and ran out to the sidewalk.
It was a sunny day, like it normally was in spring. He started walking along the pavement, not quite sure where he was going. Where was this place? It was a quiet neighborhood with clean-cut lawns and big two-story houses. He never remembered stumbling upon a street quite like this one...
After a few aimless blocks, he found himself in front of a school. He was completely lost. He plopped onto a bench in frustration.
Then an idea hit him...he could use his powers. He closed his eyes and imagined Sammy in his head. "I want to go to Sammy, I want to go to—"
Nothing happened. He groaned and stomped his foot. "Stupid magic..."
RING!
Kids started swarming out of the classrooms, eagerly running towards buses and cars. Chris couldn't make out faces, they were all running so quickly. Every time he tried to catch their attention they ignored him, running like made just to get to their buses. Chris finally lost patience. He threw his hands up in defeat, plopping back down on the bench, and was very surprised at first when there was no noise coming from the excited crowd.
He looked up and saw them all frozen. "Damn it, here we go again!" he exclaimed angrily. Wait—there were footsteps running towards him. He looked up and saw the blonde boy—Wyatt, presumably—from before. A chill went up his spine, remembering the dream...but he knew that the dream wasn't in this lifetime.
"What the—What do you think your doing, kid?" Wyatt demanded, surveying the parking lot.
Chris sank down miserably on the bench. "It happens sometimes," he mumbled. "Wyatt, right?"
"Yeah. And you must be...Chris. Nice to meet you...again."
"Huh?"
"Sometimes in these dreams..." Wyatt shook his head, shuddering.
"I know what you mean," Chris said suddenly. "I have weird dreams all the time—this week being the most active."
"What are you doing here?" asked Wyatt all of a sudden. "I mean, I guess that dad healed you, but why are you at my school? Shouldn't you be at the manor?"
"THAT'S what you call that place? Look, dude, your family is nice and everything...but I just don't belong with them."
Wyatt forced back a laugh. "Well, from what I'm seeing right here, you NEED them." Wyatt sat down next to Chris and put a hand on his shoulder. "This isn't going to be easy, Chris, but I can help you. You have to trust us. It's the only way you can grow into and learn to control your powers. We've been waiting to find you for a long time."
Chris knew that he could trust this kid just like he could trust the others. Something told him that they all had good intentions...but was he really willing to give up everything he'd ever known to excel in life as a freak? 'There's no avoiding it,' said a voice in his head. 'You have to do this. Trust them, stay with them...it's for survival now.'
He didn't understand why it was survival at stake, but a sudden chill ran up his spine. "I'll go with you," he blurted. "But...how long do I have to stay?"
Wyatt's eyes turned wistful. "Chris, you can't go back to the shelter. They think you're dead." Chris was going to open his mouth and say something back, but Wyatt spoke first. "When you were at the hospital, your heart stopped beating for a good eight minutes. Everybody thought you were dead, even us for a moment there. The doctors gave up...which gave my dad—a whitelighter, but I guess he explained that—the perfect opportunity to come in and heal you before it was too late."
"You mean...but I didn't feel it. I didn't feel anything like dying."
"You were asleep through the whole thing...in a way that nobody could wake you up."
"I know what it's like to die," he said before he could stop himself. Wyatt looked at him quizzically so Chris explained. "Well, not really, but I have these dreams...I've never died in them before, but I've been on the verge of death, you know?" Wyatt nodded. "There's even a dream that I have most often where this boy keeps dying and your dad—and my dad, I guess—is very sad. Same with that Paige woman. I met her in the hospital."
"You don't seem at all shocked for a person that just found out about magic," Wyatt joked after a pause.
Chris shrugged. "Weird things have happened. Dreams, these creepy powers, waking up to find people standing over my bed...I always expected that one day there'd be an explanation, so here it is."
"Yeah. I have those dreams too, but I'm never dying. I'm always winning, but in a sick way...I'm evil. It's the worst! But it doesn't happen that often, only when I feel really guilty about something...and then I fess up." He grinned half-heartedly. "What are your powers?"
"Well, this weird traveling thing, for one."
"It must be orbing. That's dad's kind of magic—I have that one too," said Wyatt. "Anything else?"
Chris nodded and laughed. "The freezing thing. That's been a little out of control lately."
"Yeah...mom has that one too," Wyatt told him, grinning widely and watching the still frozen children. "Go on."
"I can move things with my hands, but only sometimes."
"Telekinesis," Wyatt explained. "Aunt Paige has different but similar power like that, only it's half-whitelighter."
"Wow...she's your aunt? I mean, our aunt? Same with Phoebe?" Wyatt nodded. "Geez, this is one big family."
"Well, there's little Mel, too," said Wyatt. "Phoebe's daughter. She just turned four."
"We have a cousin, too? This is so cool...Oh yeah, and another power is this weird night vision thing. I can see people in the dark. Weird, but handy I guess."
"Yeah...nobody in the family has that yet. I can orb and do telekinesis like you, but my other powers are astral projection—" His head went down and another clone of himself appeared, at which point he grinned and returned to his body. "—and energy balls. But we can't use them here. Okay, 'lil bro,' first lesson in magic. How to unfreeze people."
"You can do that?"
"Sure. Apparently you haven't learned how...Flick your wrists at them again and picture the scene moving again."
Chris flicked his wrists as Wyatt told him to, but nothing happened.
"It's okay, you never get it on the first try. I've heard lots of funny stories about when mom and the aunts first got their powers. Try it again, but this time really envision the scene just as it was right before it froze. The noise, the movements, the emotion—"
"Uh, Wyatt?"
"Yeah?"
"If I'm s'posed to do that, you may wanna move back to where you were before the people froze."
"Oh, right." Wyatt blushed and ran over to the side of a bus about twenty feet away. "Go for it, Chris!" he yelled back.
Chris nodded and closed his eyes, picturing everything as it just was...the excited faces, people whirring past, so caught up in the rush that they don't even hear the little boy calling them. He flicked his wrists and jumped in surprise, the noise suddenly coming back to life at full force.
"You did it!" Wyatt exclaimed, running back up to Chris. "Alright, normally I walk home, but under the circumstances..." He took Chris by the hand and pulled him through the crowd, into a deserted corner. "Hold on tight, Chris."
"Why—?"
A flurry of blue lights encased them, a feeling that Chris could remember slightly from a long time ago...
((()))
A young Chris, perhaps a toddler of about three, ran through a very busy San Francisco. Terror was apparent on his face as he fled. Occasionally he glanced over his shoulder. This man was chasing him and he was completely lost. "Sammy!" he called. "Kerry! Help!"
Nobody among the crowd of tourists and busy workers heard his desperate pleas. He looked back again and saw the man still close behind, being swallowed by a crowd...in desperation, he ran into an alley to catch his breath, his heart pounding in fear.
"There you are," the man growled, coming out of nowhere. He grabbed Chris by the arm, twisting it hard when he struggled. "I need to collect my bounty!"
Chris tried harder to escape and the man threw him hard against the brick alley wall with an invisible force. 'I wanna go home...,' he thought. 'I have to get away from this man...'
The blue lights took him away.
((()))
"Chris, we're here," Wyatt announced. "You okay?"
"Yeah, fine." They were in the foyer and they both burst out laughing, seeing Leo still frozen. Apparently the sisters hadn't found him yet.
"Can you do it?" asked Wyatt.
Chris closed his eyes and imagined Leo springing back to life. He flicked his wrists.
"Chris!" Leo called out. He saw Wyatt and Chris a couple feet away suppressing giggles.
"Did you—?" Leo's confusion shook off and he laughed too. "How'd this happen?"
"I found him outside of school. He froze the whole place!" Wyatt exclaimed. "He learned how to unfreeze them, though, so it's okay. No one saw."
"Why'd you run off like that?" asked Leo, walking over to them. Chris shrunk away from him, staying close to Wyatt. "Somebody—namely the elders—could've found you..." Leo winced, hurt that Chris was scared by him.
"He's fine, dad. Nothing happened."
"Alright...just...don't leave the manor from now on. Wyatt, why don't you take Chris up to your guys' room so he can get settled? I'll go talk to your mother."
"Okay. C'mon, Chris, it's up here," said Wyatt, bounding up the stairs. Chris followed.
Wyatt opened the door, looked inside, and quickly slammed it. "Uh, MOM? DAD?"
"What is it?" asked Chris.
There was a loud booming noise from the room.
"Nothing," Wyatt gulped.
((()))
A/N—CLIFFIES! SO SUE ME!
"Take me back," he said suddenly. "Take me back to the shelter. I don't belong here!" He sprang up from the bed and made a wild dash for his life, running through the halls—and he found that he got lost. This place had a million twists and turns, it was much bigger than the orphanage. He spotted a set of stairs and ran.
The man appeared in a flurry of twinkling blue lights, guarding the door and blocking his only escape. "Please, listen to me—"
"Listen to you?! I don't even KNOW you! Leave me alone, you can't do this to me! I live somewhere else!"
"Calm down—"
"Not until you take me back!"
"Please, Chris, you have to trust me—"
"How can you expect me to trust you when you're a complete stranger?" he spat.
That one seemed to be like a slap in the face to Leo. "I know you're scared and I know that this has to be hard—"
"No, it doesn't have to be hard. You can take me back to my home and pretend this never happened. That would be quite easy!"
"You'll die if you go back there!" Leo finally shouted, getting his attention. "You're in danger. Now that we've found you, demons can track your location. You're a target. Without us to protect you, you could die."
Chris looked him straight in the eye, his stubborn will not allowing him to give up this fight. "Then let's just see what happens," he growled. He tried to push Leo out of his way and head for the door but Leo held him back. Enraged and terrified, Chris struggled out of his grasp and threw his hands up.
Leo froze. Chris sighed in relief and pried himself out of the man's arms.
This man, his father? It could be true. After all that had happened, Chris was open to accepting more freakish news. But just because this guy claimed to be his dad didn't give him any right to kidnap him. Justifying his actions with that last thought, Chris opened the door hesitantly and ran out to the sidewalk.
It was a sunny day, like it normally was in spring. He started walking along the pavement, not quite sure where he was going. Where was this place? It was a quiet neighborhood with clean-cut lawns and big two-story houses. He never remembered stumbling upon a street quite like this one...
After a few aimless blocks, he found himself in front of a school. He was completely lost. He plopped onto a bench in frustration.
Then an idea hit him...he could use his powers. He closed his eyes and imagined Sammy in his head. "I want to go to Sammy, I want to go to—"
Nothing happened. He groaned and stomped his foot. "Stupid magic..."
RING!
Kids started swarming out of the classrooms, eagerly running towards buses and cars. Chris couldn't make out faces, they were all running so quickly. Every time he tried to catch their attention they ignored him, running like made just to get to their buses. Chris finally lost patience. He threw his hands up in defeat, plopping back down on the bench, and was very surprised at first when there was no noise coming from the excited crowd.
He looked up and saw them all frozen. "Damn it, here we go again!" he exclaimed angrily. Wait—there were footsteps running towards him. He looked up and saw the blonde boy—Wyatt, presumably—from before. A chill went up his spine, remembering the dream...but he knew that the dream wasn't in this lifetime.
"What the—What do you think your doing, kid?" Wyatt demanded, surveying the parking lot.
Chris sank down miserably on the bench. "It happens sometimes," he mumbled. "Wyatt, right?"
"Yeah. And you must be...Chris. Nice to meet you...again."
"Huh?"
"Sometimes in these dreams..." Wyatt shook his head, shuddering.
"I know what you mean," Chris said suddenly. "I have weird dreams all the time—this week being the most active."
"What are you doing here?" asked Wyatt all of a sudden. "I mean, I guess that dad healed you, but why are you at my school? Shouldn't you be at the manor?"
"THAT'S what you call that place? Look, dude, your family is nice and everything...but I just don't belong with them."
Wyatt forced back a laugh. "Well, from what I'm seeing right here, you NEED them." Wyatt sat down next to Chris and put a hand on his shoulder. "This isn't going to be easy, Chris, but I can help you. You have to trust us. It's the only way you can grow into and learn to control your powers. We've been waiting to find you for a long time."
Chris knew that he could trust this kid just like he could trust the others. Something told him that they all had good intentions...but was he really willing to give up everything he'd ever known to excel in life as a freak? 'There's no avoiding it,' said a voice in his head. 'You have to do this. Trust them, stay with them...it's for survival now.'
He didn't understand why it was survival at stake, but a sudden chill ran up his spine. "I'll go with you," he blurted. "But...how long do I have to stay?"
Wyatt's eyes turned wistful. "Chris, you can't go back to the shelter. They think you're dead." Chris was going to open his mouth and say something back, but Wyatt spoke first. "When you were at the hospital, your heart stopped beating for a good eight minutes. Everybody thought you were dead, even us for a moment there. The doctors gave up...which gave my dad—a whitelighter, but I guess he explained that—the perfect opportunity to come in and heal you before it was too late."
"You mean...but I didn't feel it. I didn't feel anything like dying."
"You were asleep through the whole thing...in a way that nobody could wake you up."
"I know what it's like to die," he said before he could stop himself. Wyatt looked at him quizzically so Chris explained. "Well, not really, but I have these dreams...I've never died in them before, but I've been on the verge of death, you know?" Wyatt nodded. "There's even a dream that I have most often where this boy keeps dying and your dad—and my dad, I guess—is very sad. Same with that Paige woman. I met her in the hospital."
"You don't seem at all shocked for a person that just found out about magic," Wyatt joked after a pause.
Chris shrugged. "Weird things have happened. Dreams, these creepy powers, waking up to find people standing over my bed...I always expected that one day there'd be an explanation, so here it is."
"Yeah. I have those dreams too, but I'm never dying. I'm always winning, but in a sick way...I'm evil. It's the worst! But it doesn't happen that often, only when I feel really guilty about something...and then I fess up." He grinned half-heartedly. "What are your powers?"
"Well, this weird traveling thing, for one."
"It must be orbing. That's dad's kind of magic—I have that one too," said Wyatt. "Anything else?"
Chris nodded and laughed. "The freezing thing. That's been a little out of control lately."
"Yeah...mom has that one too," Wyatt told him, grinning widely and watching the still frozen children. "Go on."
"I can move things with my hands, but only sometimes."
"Telekinesis," Wyatt explained. "Aunt Paige has different but similar power like that, only it's half-whitelighter."
"Wow...she's your aunt? I mean, our aunt? Same with Phoebe?" Wyatt nodded. "Geez, this is one big family."
"Well, there's little Mel, too," said Wyatt. "Phoebe's daughter. She just turned four."
"We have a cousin, too? This is so cool...Oh yeah, and another power is this weird night vision thing. I can see people in the dark. Weird, but handy I guess."
"Yeah...nobody in the family has that yet. I can orb and do telekinesis like you, but my other powers are astral projection—" His head went down and another clone of himself appeared, at which point he grinned and returned to his body. "—and energy balls. But we can't use them here. Okay, 'lil bro,' first lesson in magic. How to unfreeze people."
"You can do that?"
"Sure. Apparently you haven't learned how...Flick your wrists at them again and picture the scene moving again."
Chris flicked his wrists as Wyatt told him to, but nothing happened.
"It's okay, you never get it on the first try. I've heard lots of funny stories about when mom and the aunts first got their powers. Try it again, but this time really envision the scene just as it was right before it froze. The noise, the movements, the emotion—"
"Uh, Wyatt?"
"Yeah?"
"If I'm s'posed to do that, you may wanna move back to where you were before the people froze."
"Oh, right." Wyatt blushed and ran over to the side of a bus about twenty feet away. "Go for it, Chris!" he yelled back.
Chris nodded and closed his eyes, picturing everything as it just was...the excited faces, people whirring past, so caught up in the rush that they don't even hear the little boy calling them. He flicked his wrists and jumped in surprise, the noise suddenly coming back to life at full force.
"You did it!" Wyatt exclaimed, running back up to Chris. "Alright, normally I walk home, but under the circumstances..." He took Chris by the hand and pulled him through the crowd, into a deserted corner. "Hold on tight, Chris."
"Why—?"
A flurry of blue lights encased them, a feeling that Chris could remember slightly from a long time ago...
((()))
A young Chris, perhaps a toddler of about three, ran through a very busy San Francisco. Terror was apparent on his face as he fled. Occasionally he glanced over his shoulder. This man was chasing him and he was completely lost. "Sammy!" he called. "Kerry! Help!"
Nobody among the crowd of tourists and busy workers heard his desperate pleas. He looked back again and saw the man still close behind, being swallowed by a crowd...in desperation, he ran into an alley to catch his breath, his heart pounding in fear.
"There you are," the man growled, coming out of nowhere. He grabbed Chris by the arm, twisting it hard when he struggled. "I need to collect my bounty!"
Chris tried harder to escape and the man threw him hard against the brick alley wall with an invisible force. 'I wanna go home...,' he thought. 'I have to get away from this man...'
The blue lights took him away.
((()))
"Chris, we're here," Wyatt announced. "You okay?"
"Yeah, fine." They were in the foyer and they both burst out laughing, seeing Leo still frozen. Apparently the sisters hadn't found him yet.
"Can you do it?" asked Wyatt.
Chris closed his eyes and imagined Leo springing back to life. He flicked his wrists.
"Chris!" Leo called out. He saw Wyatt and Chris a couple feet away suppressing giggles.
"Did you—?" Leo's confusion shook off and he laughed too. "How'd this happen?"
"I found him outside of school. He froze the whole place!" Wyatt exclaimed. "He learned how to unfreeze them, though, so it's okay. No one saw."
"Why'd you run off like that?" asked Leo, walking over to them. Chris shrunk away from him, staying close to Wyatt. "Somebody—namely the elders—could've found you..." Leo winced, hurt that Chris was scared by him.
"He's fine, dad. Nothing happened."
"Alright...just...don't leave the manor from now on. Wyatt, why don't you take Chris up to your guys' room so he can get settled? I'll go talk to your mother."
"Okay. C'mon, Chris, it's up here," said Wyatt, bounding up the stairs. Chris followed.
Wyatt opened the door, looked inside, and quickly slammed it. "Uh, MOM? DAD?"
"What is it?" asked Chris.
There was a loud booming noise from the room.
"Nothing," Wyatt gulped.
((()))
A/N—CLIFFIES! SO SUE ME!
