Chapter 4

The two re-appeared outside Allies apartment. The area was-well, as Paige thought- a bit depressing. Huge towering grey buildings surrounded the street, and a few scattered shops with boarded up windows here and there.

"Well, thanks again Paige. I'll talk to you later." She said making for the door of yet another uninviting building.

"Hey, look here's my phone number-when you want to come back just give me a call ok?" Paige said, scribbling down her number on a piece of paper.

"Thanks, I will." And with that she twisted the key in the door opening it, stepped inside and waved at Paige before closing the door behind her.

Paige shivered, looked around one more time to see if anyone was there, and orbed out.

Allie shut the door and stood there for a moment. "That's got to be the weirdest night I've ever had." She said, starting up the 4 flights of stairs-the elevator was of course, still 'out of order' being like that since the day she moved in. No sooner had she reached the second floor, she could hear the loud music coming from the apartment.
"Oh great. They're here." She continued up the steps, the music getting louder and louder as each step passed. She got to the door, Number '49' with the '9' hanging upside down looking like a '6'. She pushed through the door wincing at the loudness of the music. Walking on straight through the room not stopping and hoping that nobody would notice.

"Hey...Angelina...."

"Damn." She muttered. "Hey Joe, hey Julie." She turned to her two flatmates, who were slumped on the couch seemingly drugged out of their minds.

"What's up girl?" Julies voice slurred.

"Not much-music loud enough for you?"

"Perfect." Was the answer she got.

"Right, well I'm just gonna go lie down for a bit. Talk to you later." Without waiting for a response, she quickly slid into her room, shutting the door behind her. She rolled her eyes and wondered how she ever got suckered into sharing a flat with them. "Well maybe it was because you had nowhere else to go..." she answered herself back. She quickly changed clothes, tidied the room up some bit and grabbed her bag and coat and hurriedly walked back out into the living room towards the door.

"Phew." she sighed, looking at Joe and Julie who had fallen asleep on the couch. She stepped towards the door only stopping and turned back and switched off the stereo. Once outside she walked down towards her favourite coffee house-far from her flat, stepped inside and sat down at her usual table.
Chris was perched on one of the beams on the Golden Gate Bridge, the wind blowing his hair back from his face. He stared outwards towards the ocean, not listening to the hundreds of cars that passed underneath him.
"God why don't they understand." He said to himself. "I come back here, risking everything to save that son of a...." he wouldn't let himself finish the sentence. "Well, to save him, yet here they are acting like it's nothing." He shook his head. "Well, maybe if you told them why you need to save him..." his conscience answered him back. "No. It's better they don't know, about him or me for that matter."

"Talking to yourself Chris?"

Chris momentarily shocked, sighed and rolled his eyes. "Hello to you to Leo. How long have you been standing there?"

"Only for a second or two." Leo replied sitting down next to him.

"So.... what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be 'Up There' doing Elder stuff?"

"I'm taking Wyatt to the Zoo."

"Oh, that's nice." Chris wanted to say something else but restrained himself, Leo already hated him enough as it is, and he didn't want to risk his job as Whitelighter to the Charmed Ones. But then remembered why he was in such a bad mood.

"Leo, last night there was a demon attack-" he started off

"Are the girls alright? Is Wyatt alright?" Leo looked at him, panicked.

"Yeah, yeah they're fine it's-"

"Oh good,so you're sure Wyatt-"

"Would you at least let me finish!" Chris's temper flared, at his fathers constant mentioning of Wyatt.

"Yeah, sorry.."

"Right well the girls and I orbed into Golden Gate park, and there was this demon. He was attacking this girl-what was her name again....Can't remember, anyway, so they told me to orb her back to the manor and I did, well it turns out she's a witch that just found out about her powers-then she started throwing stuff at me, she nearly hit me with a lamp and had half the room telekinetically floating around her and it was all heading towards me and-"

"Uh, Chris. Back to topic?" Leo looked at him with his eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, ok. So anyway the girls let her stay the night and well, she did. So this morning Paige is talking about the reason behind why she's their innocent. And, get this-she thinks that they are meant to help her come into her new powers!" he finished, looking at Leo to see if he thought it was as crazy an idea as he did.
Leo stared back blankly.

"So what's the problem?"

Chris threw his hands up in frustration. "Hello? Earth to Leo! The Charmed Ones aren't meant to have charges. That's a Whitelighters job. Plus, they should be trying to figure out a way to save Wyatt."

"Well, I'll have a word with the girls, and the Elders and try and find out about this ....what did you say her name was again?"

"I didn't. Began with 'A' I think. Alice? No, uh...Alyssa...no. Oh, it's Allie." He said bitterly.

"Right, well. I'll go check it out. See you around Chris." And with that he orbed out.

Chris frowned muttered "Hopefully not.", took one last look around him and orbed out.