Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed or any of its characters; my story is fan fiction and no breach of copyright is intended.
Background information: Ben Williams (Turner) is 15 years old; he has the power to shimmer and has premonitions. Melinda Cottle (Halliwell-Wyatt) is 18 years old and can freeze time (+ she can orb which she currently is unaware of).
*********************************************************************
Present time (2021):Ben's House:
Ben began shifting through the clothes in the wardrobe trying to decide what to wear. "I hate it when everything changes," muttered Ben angrily; he had lost count of how many foster families he had been through in his lifetime. Each time he went to a new foster family it usually meant a new school.
"Ben are you nearly ready, you're going to be late for your first day at school" shouted Julie his new foster mother up the stairs.
He reluctantly walked down the stairs to the front door, as he pulled it open Julie asked "Ben what about breakfast?"
"I'm not hungry" he replied and shut the door in her face.
Ben looked down at his watch, "It's a good job I have my power" he thought, "it would take me half an hour to walk to the new school, which starts in 5 minutes".
Glancing around to check no one was looking his way, Ben shimmered out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Manor:
Ben appeared next to a run down looking house. "I ought to get to school" Ben thought glancing down the street, but then his gaze returned to the house, he wasn't sure what made him stop here. He had felt some kind of pull to the house and curiosity had got the better of him. "Curiosity killed the cat," he murmured to himself, then chuckling he thought to himself "good job I'm not a cat."
He slowly walked up the pathway that was hard to see because it was covered in weeds. As he approached the front door he saw a number on the wall. "1329" he read as he wiped the numbers free of dirt.
He heard a beeping noise and looked down at his watch "school's started" he quietly sighed into the wind. "There's something about this house," he pondered as he glanced up at the house for a second time, "I'll find out where it is, then I suppose I aught to get to school"
He shimmered out and appeared next to a street sign, "Prescott Street; doesn't ring any bells" he thought and shimmered out off to school
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
School:
"Stupid locker" grumbled Ben under his breath, "I've put the right locker combination in and it still won't open"
As he was getting more and more frustrated, a voice next to him suggested, "try kicking it!"
The boy turned round and stared at her like she was crazy, Melinda sighed and repeated "you've got to kick it" while she simultaneously kicked his locker. It swung open. "Hi, you must be new here, I'm Melinda" she held her hand out, for him to shake. He continued to stare at her.
"How do you know I'm new?" he asked rather rudely in Melinda's opinion; but she just replied, "you're holding your locker combination and didn't know to kick your locker."
"I probably look foolish with my hand stuck out, which he obviously isn't going to shake" thought Melinda and she began to drop her hand. Suddenly the boy grabbed her hand and said "My name's...." he trailed off staring at her. "Okay he's beginning to freak me out," she thought. "Sorry, I've got to go, see u around sometime" she said hastily and walked away to find her friends.
Ben stared after the girl, "that was weird," he thought. When he'd touched the girl's hand he'd had a vision, to most people having a vision would have been weird but he was used to them now, what had been weird was what he saw:
The girl Melinda, had been standing in a house looking at some pictures, she seemed pretty upset. Behind her he could see a clock showing that it was 3.30. He then saw her leaving the house and walking down a path to the street. As the vision had ended he had seen what she saw as she glanced behind her. The house he had visited this morning!
As she walked away Ben said under his breath "maybe I'll see you sooner then you think"
~ ~
Everything was normal till lunchtime. Ben weaved around the people milling about in the cafeteria, and found a table to sit down at; a girl from his chemistry class came and sat next to him, then annoyingly decided to proceed talking to him non-stop. "Why can't she let me eat in peace?" he thought despairingly "I which she would just stop talking". And then she did!
Melinda flung her arms up and accidentally froze the room as her friend Sarah, who was standing next to her carrying her school lunch, began to fall forwards, as she tripped over. "No, no, no, not again" Melinda said with frustration "I hate it when this happens". She looked around the room; everyone was frozen.
"Come on unfreeze" she murmured, with her eyes glued to the main doors, and her arms supporting Sarah so that she would not fall flat on her face when she unfroze; she had learnt from experience that everything outside of this room would not be frozen. She was so focused on the main doors, Melinda never noticed one student unfreezing before all the others.
The girl sitting next to him had stopped talking so abruptly that Ben glanced up; she wasn't moving. He looked around the room, puzzled, no one was moving. It was like everyone was frozen. A movement caught his eyes and he saw Melinda standing across the room looking very nervous and murmuring to herself. He continued to watch her, the room was so quite you could have heard a pin drop. He realised Melinda must have done this, "She froze everyone," he thought
He groaned slightly as he suddenly heard the girl sitting next to him, abruptly continuing her conversation; the room had unfrozen. "Well I'll definitely see you at the house tonight" he murmured to himself. "What was that?" asked the girl next to him. "Oh, nothing" he replied distractedly, "sorry I've got to go" and grabbing his stuff he left to find somewhere quiet where he could think.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Manor:Melinda pushed open the broken back door, and entered the house; she wandered through to the room once used as a living room. She came here regularly to think, it was her secret, a place to get away. Melinda stared longingly at the picture on the wall; it showed a couple holding a toddler smiling at the camera, everyone in the picture looked so happy, this was her favourite picture. Carefully she reached up and took it off the wall so she could see it clearer. "Why did you have to leave me?" she whispered sadly. As she stared longingly at the picture her mind wandered, until a sharp clear voice from behind said "nice picture". Startled she dropped the picture and despairingly heard the glass shatter. Spinning around she saw the boy she had met at the lockers earlier that day.
Bending down, Ben picked up the picture that had fallen free of the broken frame, "sorry, I didn't mean to startle you" he said apologetically as he handed the picture back to Melinda. "Who's the picture of" he asked. She just stared at him. Then he remembered that he'd never finished introducing himself, "my name's Ben, Ben Williams" he stated, "So who's the picture of" he repeated, pointing at it.
She glanced back at the picture then hesitantly replied "my parents". Ben looked around the room, "she lives here with her parents," he thought.
"I don't mean to be rude but why don't your parents do the house up a bit because it looks abandoned"
"It is abandoned" she replied quietly, she must have seen the confused look on his face because she hesitatingly continued, "my parents died, I live with my adoptive parents, I just come here sometimes, it's all that I have of my biological parents. Never mind you wouldn't understand"
"I do, my parents are dead too, though I have no idea who they were. I live with a foster family" then unsure whether he should ask he said, "how did your parents die?"
She looked up at Ben and told him what she had never told anyone before "I don't know, no one could decide". She usually told her friends they died in a car accident, only her adopted parents and the police knew of the mystery surrounding her parents death. "What about your parents?"
Wondering how it was possible for no one to be able to decide how someone died, Ben answered her question," I don't know either" he said "a guy turned up at an orphanage with me when I was barely a few months old, handed me to the staff and told them my parents were dead."
"Do you remember your parents" enquired Ben. Melinda frowned, pondering the question. "Not very well" she replied "all I remember is that my parents used to read me bedtime stories" she gazed up at a picture of a women; who must be her mother, Melinda paused then finished sadly, " and that my mum broke her promise to me"
"What promise?"
"That's just it, I don't know. I can't remember. I know it was an important promise though. When ever I think of the promise I feel sad and angry but I can't remember what the promise was." Melinda sighed and retracted her thoughts from the past.
An awkward silence fell. Ben turned away from Melinda and began too look around the rest of the house. He reached the bottom of a flight of stairs when he was on the second floor, slowly he began to ascend them, just as he could make out a door at the top, Melinda appeared at the bottom and said "it's an attic but the doors locked, I can't open it". Why he continued to the door Ben never knew, but as he placed his hand upon the doorknob he heard a soft click. Slowly he turned the handle, and the door swung open. "I thought you said it was locked" he stated and entered the attic.
Stuttering confusedly Melinda hurried up the stairs and followed Ben into the attic "it was locked, I know it was locked, I've been trying to get in here for years"
Ben began looking through the things in the corner of the room, whilst Melinda made her way to the middle of the room where there was a thick book lying open, upon a stand. Melinda reached for the paper blocking the pages of the book, absentmindedly putting them in her pocket. "These are strange poems" she thought and began flicking through the book "no, wait a minute, they look like spells" she realised.
As Ben glanced up from the box he was looking through, he saw Melinda was watching him with a strange expression on her face, "what is it?" he asked
Melinda couldn't decide whether to ask him or not. "What if he thinks I'm really weird or insane" she thought, then slowly she said "do you believe in magic?" Just as she thought he wasn't going to reply, he sighed and said, "yes".
"Why did she ask me that" he wondered and Ben wandered over to see what Melinda was looking at. He began flicking through the pages of the book and realised that the book was full of what appeared to be spells. Melinda broke his concentration, by stumbling over her words but finally saying "if I tell you something will you keep it a secret, never tell anyone, ever, do you promise" Ben wondered whether she was about to tell him she was dying or something because she appeared so sombre and serious "do you promise" she insisted again, "yes" he replied wondering what was wrong.
"I can, I, I, I can" she stuttered, and then taking a deep breath she rushed out "I can freeze time" she saw Ben glance back at the book. "Great he thinks I'm crazy now" she thought and then Ben said "I know"
"You believe me," she said ecstatically, then frowning she asked, "You know, what do you mean you know?"
"I saw you freeze everyone in the cafeteria" he replied, then thoughtfully he added "I'm glad you did actually, the girl next to me wouldn't stop talking"
Just as Melinda opened her mouth to ask Ben why he hadn't frozen, a noise from behind, made her spin. She saw Ben was turning around as well.
They both swore loudly as a spinning, shimmering region appeared in mid air in front of them. Both of them began "what is…" as they were both sucked into the region. Ben, Melinda and the strange region disappeared. The attic was empty and silent.
*Finished chapter 2 a little later than planned, I'll put the 3rd chapter up as soon as possible*