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Chapter Six

Sunday 5:32 PM

Silence reigned in those precious few minutes. A lot of emotions went through the attic at that moment, the strongest being confusion, then comprehension, and finally grief. After his last declaration and silent plea for mercy from the wrath of a vengeful, yet unknowing, brother and the memories that once again, regardless of how many times he tried to fight it, began to surface.

Realization hit Chris like a Mack truck. The anger returned to this stance, his eyes, his voice, all of them shaking, but this time...this time, sadness, misery, and pain couldn't help but creep into those features as well.

"What happened?! What did you do?!" he yelled in his strangled voice, a mixture of definite rage, but with the undertone of grief.

"I'm sorry, Chris," Brett said, sitting, crumpled on the sorry, hallow wooden floor of that attic which now seemed so cold, here in that dark, staring at nothing, seeming as if haunted by something that even those touched by magic couldn't see.

"What happened?! What did you do?!" Chris yelled with frustration now in his tone, the watery eyes still attempting to hold back tears fighting to fall.

"I'm sorry. I tried to tell you earlier, but...everything got so...I tried. God, I tried so hard..." Brett gasped, still looking at figures, voices that weren't there, trapped in something no one else could see, tears freely falling, now, no longer attempted to be held back. "I'm sorry, Chris. I'm so sorry...I tried so hard, but...he was just so strong..." Brett concluded, his voice breaking higher when he finished.

"What happened?! Who did what?! What happened?!" Chris yelled, impatience claiming him as well, his cheeks wet from tears his body couldn't help but shed.

"He's dead, Chris," Brett said, a voice so lost, so soft, so...not here, along with its owner; stuck in a world, no one else had access to. The certainty and finality and, most of all, plea for apathy in his voice just wouldn't leave. "He's dead. Matt is dead."

"...wha...no...huh...gah...no...uh...no...huh..." Chris grunted, stepping back, acting as if mere space could save him from what was so regretfully revealed to him. His foot caught one of the various books he, just recently, so easily, even earnestly, threw. He tried to right himself, save himself from falling, but fell awkwardly anyway, landing on his end, legs in an awkward position on either side of him as he sank to the floor. Once unbidden tears freely falling now, his head shaking back and forth as if in a 'no' gesture, refusing to believe what he just learned, Chris seemed to be lost in his own world.

"It's true, Chris. Matt's dead," Brett said, certainty and regret equal parts of his tone. For the first time during the exchange, the sisters, confused expressions and all, spoke.

"What happened?" whispered Phoebe, her head cocked slightly to her side in the direction of her sisters, but her eyes never leaving the seen before her.

"Yeah...who's Matt?" Paige asked, her eyes not leaving the two lost souls in front of her either. It was Piper's certain and miserable tone that surprised and snapped them back to her sister, the first time she spoke since her outburst.

"My son..." she breathed out. Phoebe and Paige looked to her in concern, her body calm, relaxed, her face smooth, but wet, and eyes shining and red as tears continued to pour. She wouldn't look at her sisters. She couldn't. "Matt is my son," she tried again, voice unnaturally calm, yet pained at the same time. "Wyatt killed his little brother."

Phoebe and Paige turned back to and sighed, now with newfound sympathy, empathy, and respect, knowing all too well what it felt like to lose a sibling. So they stayed there, all of them, grieving in their own way, lost in the morbidity of it all. How...right, how fitting, how apt...did it seem to have this secret divulged to them here, in the darkness of an old attic, the same that would lose all its meaning in the next two decades, regardless of its ancestral ties, its heritage?

It was rather poetic...something that would happen only in a fairy tales...

But they all knew...fairy tales had to come from somewhere...

"No," Chris mumbled. Everyone turned at the sudden movement as Chris began to stand up, his stance taking on anger once again, but this time it was laced with a weariness and bitterness that the sisters could never claim they saw before. "No...that can't be. He promised me. HE PROMISED ME!"

"Chris?" Paige asked. Concerned, she stepped forward and lifted her hand to comfort him from behind, only to stop at his suddenly furious expression.

"NO! You did something didn't you?! DIDN'T YOU?!" Chris yelled at the top of his lungs. "Wyatt promised me, no matter what, he would never let anything harm Matt. If there was a fight—," Chris paused to take a much needed deep breath. "—that if it were a fight with demons or monsters or even between us, that he would never let anything happen to Matt...ever! So you had to have done something!" Chris stepped forward, but Phoebe put a retraining hand on his shoulder reminding him to relax, before he could get too close to the crumpled, sitting form on the floor.

Chris' accusation snapped Brett out of his delusions. "I didn't...I...I...I'm sorry..."

Chris nearly exploded. "You're sorry?! How is sorry supposed to fix anything?!" he yelled. "You had to have done something! Because...because why would Wyatt kill his own little brother, a Charmed One?! Why?! Why?!"

"BECAUSE OF ME!" yelled the curled figure, unbefitting something that seemed so small, so fragile. He seemed lost in his own world again, staring at the point on the floor, propped up against the wall, arms hugging his knees. "Oh...God..." he sighed, as if barely rediscovering a truth all over again. "Wyatt...killed him because of me..."

"WHAT?!" Chris yelled. Paige now had to help Phoebe hold him back from tackling Brett.

"Wyatt killed him...God...Wyatt killed him. Because of me... I wouldn't—"Brett stammered. Piper noticed how he flinched as he spoke again, eyes once again dazed, remembering something that shouldn't have been. "—do something he told me to do and...oh, God...he found Matt," Brett said, his voice squeaking as he mentioned the name. "He killed him...right in front of me. He—he gave me Matt's powers, made me a Charmed One...b-bb-bound me to him... Oh, God...he killed Matt..."

The sisters' felt their hearts break at that one moment. "I can feel him..." Brett began eyes looking dazed, not focusing on anything, as the tears came. "It's like...h-hh-heh, it's like h-h-he's inside me...God...if you only knew...oh, God!" he shuddered, sobbing.

"I knew it..." whispered Chris. "I knew it. It was your fault... It was all your FAULT!" he yelled, trying desperately to get out of Phoebe and Paige's grasp without hurting them.

"Chris stop, it!" Phoebe cried.

"Yeah, man, pull yourself together!" yelled Paige.

"Let me go! Didn't you hear him?!" he yelled disbelievingly at his aunts. "You heard him! He admitted it himself! It's his fault! It's all his fault!" he yelled, squirming in his aunt's tight embrace.

"That's enough, Chris!" cried Piper. For a brief second, Phoebe and Paige almost let go of Chris, after their nearly unflappable sister snapped. "You know it's not his fault! He's a victim in this, too! Just as much as your brother was! Just as much as you are..." she trailed off, knowing she had hit the nerve of her son's pain. "He's an innocent in all this,"

Chris obviously didn't understand it. "NO! No, I don't know! More importantly, you don't know!" he yelled. "He stopped being an 'innocent' a long time ago!"

This seemed to snap Brett out of his daze. "Please, Chris, don't..." he whispered.

"'Don't,' what, Brett?" Chris yelled venomously. "Huh? 'Don't,' what? 'Don't, tell them?' 'Don't leave the cap of the toothpaste?' 'Don't, I want to be alone tonight?' 'Don't' what, Brett? Huh? 'Don't,' what?"

"Chris...please—"Brett began, eyes pleading, but unfocused, tears streaming down harder than before, but not sobbing...yet.

"Chris, stop it!" yelled Phoebe, who long ago stood back with Paige as Chris gave up trying to maim Brett and just stood still, voice like ice.

"You have no idea what he did, what he did!" yelled Chris back. Turning back to Brett, Chris' voice was nothing but merciful. "'Please,' what, Brett? 'Please,' what? 'Please go get me some milk?' 'Please, leave me alone?' 'Please, go away, I have to do someo—I mean, something, private?" he sneered.

"Stop it, Chris!" yelled Paige, angry for the first time in this conversation. "I mean it! Leave him alone!"

"Please, Chris, don't...don't..." Brett said, scrambling and rocking away from whatever he was staring at on the floor.

"The truth is, Brett," Chris said, voice soft and deadly. "You deserved it. You deserve what you chose..."

Brett's eyes widened and the twenty-something year old started scrambling, scratching anything to get away.

"Chris, stop it, or I swear I'll become a god again just so I can kick your ass!" yelled Phoebe, in tears.

"You deserve everything you got! It's just not fair that Matt was killed, all because you were too self-centered to make a stupid decision! It's your fault! It's all your fault! You deserve everything you got, everything you chose!"

Brett appeared to come out of his reverie, pleading. "Chris, please...I can explain..."

"Chris, that's ENOUGH!" yelled Piper herself, enraged beyond belief.

"Hah, 'explain?'" Chris laughed, shaking his head disbelievingly, not listening, nor caring to what his mother said. "'Explain?' I don't want any of your explanations!"

"Chris...I'm sorry—"Brett tried, but was cut off.

"Save your 'sorry's!'" Chris yelled. "I don't care! You chose, and now your getting what you deserve. This is all your fault! There's nothing left to explain!"

"No, Chris, you've got it all—"Brett tried.

"Chris! I'm serious! That's enough!" Piper yelled.

"No, you're wrong! I know everything that happened!"

"CHRIS!" yelled Piper, desperate to stop him before he made an even bigger mistake.

"You cheated on me with Wyatt!!!"
I want to thank you, all those who review. It really keeps me going. I hope you stick around. This is going to get brutal...really brutal. Hang on. It's sad, dramatic, and lovely...if you let it. Please keep those reviews coming. I'm up for any suggestions if you want to throw any in.

I plan to write at least one story per day, so... Also, if you have a question on the story, please feel free to ask.

Again, thank you.