I had so much fun with this chapter it was disgusting!
The last thing that Chris wanted to do was sit in the kitchen bitterest of his loud family and eat dinner as if everything were normal. Any other day, he would have been fine with it all, but not today.
Chris didn't orb out though. He already had to cover up what was going on with him. The last thing he needed was for his mother and his father to make a deliberate effort to give him a talking to. So, he forced himself to roll off of his comfortable, warm bed and trudge out of the sanctuary of his bedroom.
He slowly climbed the creaky basement stairs of the loud and crowded atmosphere of his kitchen that awaited him. There, his two aunts stood convening with each other as his mother took a pan out of the over. The refreshingly good smell of lasagna paraded itself throughout the kitchen as she did and he was struck instantly by his hunger.
Paige smiled at him as she chopped down on a piece of raw spaghetti and Phoebe instantly came over to him to pull his cheeks in greeting. She also gave him more of an embarrassing welcome as she gave him a large hug followed by a gentle pat on his head and then another warm bear hug.
"Chris, you're getting so tall," she told him as she did so and he quickly shrugged out of her grasp.
"Oh, Phoebe. Give him a break. The boy needs air." Paige reprimanded her older sister as she laced her own slender arm in his for enough time to pull him away from Phoebe. "Speaking of which, how's my favorite nephew."
"Wyatt's around. I'm fine though, Aunt Paige." he told her sarcastically.
"Fine? Kay. So I hear that you've got yourself a secret admirer." she informed him with a curve of her quirked mouth.
"What? Who?" he asked her in dazed confusion.
"Paige, can you go and set the table," Piper interrupted firmly with a side glance at her sister in warning.
Chris didn't let the interruption pass over his head though. He didn't remember having any admirers around now. Which meant that he was changing the past more then he had already thought he had.
Not good. Not good.
Where was his Aunt Prue when he needed her?
Instantly, he thought of someone else he could rely his secret in. Wyatt. He could help him. He'd keep his secret since he was all about fairness and loyalty. He'd help him out if he needed it. Which he did more now then he ever had before. Wyatt would make sure that Chris didn't screw up the past. He was always good at putting things back together so why not the past or future. Or was it the present?
This time traveling thing was really screwing with his tenses.
"Mom, where's Wyatt?" Chris asked her.
"Hmm?" she asked as she placed a pan on the stove beside the lasagna that was filled with dinner rolls.
His stomach turned over yet again in hunger. The last thing he needed was for the past to change anymore. Also, if he remembered right then Wyatt should be coming into the kitchen about now. Then, in a few seconds, the Kopkin demon would appear to attack the family.
Places please, he thought dryly. It was weird, but he felt as if his world had become a play and only he had seen the script so he was the only one to know what was going to happen.
"Wyatt? You're first born. You know, tall kind of balky in the Hulk type of way. Possible lazy eye." he listed for her sarcastically.
"Chris, you now that the whole lazy eye scenario happened because of personal gain. Oh, and if I remember this right then you gained a tail in the whole episode so if I were you I wouldn't be talking."
"Yeah, yeah. Past consequences. Over them now and moving onto the question involving Wyatt's whereabouts."
For a moment, his mother paled at his words. She dropped the spatula she'd been holding to scrape the dinner rolls off the pan onto the kitchen floor as she did.
"Hey, mom, are you okay?" he asked her.
In seconds, he'd come to her side. His hand was on her shaking one and he stared down into her cloudy brown eyes. If anything she looked haunted which didn't make any sense to him, but when did anything ever make a lot of sense to him? She nodded to him silently as she regained her composure. A smile pasted itself over her pale mauve lips as she went back into hostess mode.
"Mom?" he asked again.
"Sorry, I've been clumsy all day." she told him as she pushed a dark brown strand of hair out of her pale face.
"You sure?"
The last thing he needed was for his mother to be off her guard now. A demon was soon to attack and she was a pivotal part in its destruction. She needed to be focused on anything that could happen if he wanted to keep the past from changing anymore then it already had.
Why did it seem that he screwed everything up?
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry, Chris. That's my job." she said to him as she turned to him and patted his cheek lovingly.
"Not worry? In this family?" he laughed.
Piper laughed dryly with him and sighed.
"So, where's Wyatt?" he asked again for the hundredth time.
"I told him he could go to his friends."
"What? Why?" Chris spazzed.
Not good. Not good! That was starting to be his theme song for the day.
No Wyatt? Who would destroy the Kopkin Demon? Who would get hurt because of it?
How could she have just let him go to a friends house?
"I know. He was grounded and it's family dinner day, but I thought it would be a nice change for him if he celebrated a little with his friends."
Oh, yeah. The foot ball team. Great. Now what? It wasn't like there was enough time to warn everyone and have them believe him.
Just then the doorbell rang. Piper checked her watch to see the time as Chris's head shot up.
Who? No one was supposed to be here. This was only for family. No one else ever came to a family dinner before unless they were becoming part of the family themselves. No one had come to this family dinner last time he had lived it.
Chris watched his Aunt Phoebe as she came out of the solarium where everyone was loudly talking about things. Small scraps of conversations he couldn't make any sense of floated out to him as he stood rooted to his spot in confusion as well as apprehension. Phoebe rushed to the door and quickly opened it to open the outside world.
All he could see was the dark gray overcast sky. He realized that it was raining outside as he swallowed hard. There was a small figure standing in the doorway that was half covered from his vision by Phoebe and a large black umbrella that they were straining with to close.
Chris tried to make sense of who would be at the door. Wyatt wouldn't ring the doorbell. He'd orb in or use his key. Chris's emerald eyes swung to the clock where he saw that it was 5:15. The Kopkin demon would soon be arriving. He wouldn't use a doorbell either. He'd shimmer in.
The doorbell… Who would be here? The door slowly opened more as the dark rimless of raindrops dropped into the threshold.
Who?
"So I hear that you've got yourself a secret admirer." Paige's words haunted him for a moment.
No. No, it couldn't be. She couldn't be here. She wouldn't have come here after the way he had just left her in the school. She wouldn't know where he lived.
He was just fooling himself.
It had to be Wyatt. That was the only explanation for this. Wyatt probably had forgotten his key to the house, they must've locked the door accidentally, and he hadn't wanted to hear another 'personal gain' comment from their mother. So, he had used the doorbell. That had to be it.
Hope failed. The moment stopped. Her familiar voice floated into the room along with the cold breeze from the rainfall. "Hi. I brought dessert."
"Oh, goodie. Chocolate mousse cake? I think I am going to like you a lot," his aunt told Jade as she came more into the house shyly.
Jade walked through the threshold and took her ragged black combat boots off. She straightened herself as raindrops skirted her face in small streams. A small smile hinted itself over her lips as their eyes met across the small distance and he felt the world ending at his very hands.
"Hello, stranger." she called to him in the hallway.
"Hi." he called to her and through the side of his mouth he mumbled. "Mom, I told you that the Kopkin demon-stration was coming." he said as he tried to code the words in his annoyed state of mind.
"Relax, Chris." she told him lightly. I'll freeze him before…"
Before she could even finish her statement the Kopkin demon simmered into the hallway in front of Phoebe. She was instantly thrust aside into the sitting room. It's slimy gray and green scales slithered as it breathed in the air around it. It sucked in more as its beady rat-like red eyes cast over Piper.
Before she could react to him he had used his power to send her slamming back into the kitchen. Her body hit the kitchen island hard. She crumpled to the floor with her back crushed against the island as she moaned.
"Mom!" he cried.
Chris' dark emerald green eyes flickered back to the demon as it turned back to Jade who had turned as pale as a corpse. Her umbrella fell from her grip as she backed into the closed stained glass doors.
It smiled. It's long gray saber tooth-like teeth jutting over its saliva ridden white lips as it slithered forward like a snake ready to strike its prey. It's intent now was on Jade. Instantly, Chris remembered why. It sensed good souls and ate them alive to sustain its own immortal life.
"No!" he cried.
By then, Paige had ran into the hallway to be pummeled straight back into the grandfather clock. She slammed into it and fell to the floor instantly unconscious. She was down for the count. Chris knew none of his cousins could help. They were too young and too unfocused to even be able to vanquish a demon let alone cook their own dinner.
The demon looked over at him for a second. It gazed at him as it evaluated him and then it turned its back on him as it progressed towards Jade. He must not have been any threat. At least, that was what it thought. Sure, he wasn't freaking twice-blessed holder of Excalibur Wyatt Halliwell but he sure as hell wasn't going to let the demon hurt anyone else without a fight.
"Help!" she squealed as she buried herself further into the corner.
"I said no," he told the demon.
Before he knew what it was that he had done or even what had happened a burst of white orbs flew from his hands. They collided into the demons body without even looking as if they had even made a mark. For a shocked moment, he thought nothing was going to happen.
The demon hadn't even felt the orbs hit him. The demon hadn't even reacted to them at all. Then, it reared back its ugly head and lowered its saber tooth teeth in a sinking sweep for Jade's head. She raised her hands weakly up to defend herself against the razor sharp teeth and gave a small cry.
It didn't make it though. The teeth scraped over her small hands as she cried out in pain. Before it made any further contact, the demon exploded into clumpy green bloody pieces right before Chris's eyes.