Hey guys! Sorry for the wait, but it wasn't as bad as last time. Thankfully enough I already knew what I wanted to do for the last three chapters. I already have the next one written, so as soon as you guys review, I'll put it up. Then it's just one more chapter before I can start Carry on the Heritage! I hope you're ready, Laur…
s.halliwell24- Thanks!
Prince Halliwell- Thanks! I'm glad you liked it because I didn't. I guess authors are always critical of their own work though…
The-Cheese-Fairy- Well thanks, but the only reason that I'm good at 1st person POV is because I don't think of it as writing through someone else's eyes, I put myself in that situation and write through my own. All of these characters have a lot of me in them in what they say and do because I'm a sarcastic smart ass just like they are! So maybe that'll help if you ever have to do that. I hate English class, but if we get to write then I'm all over it! But really, I'm not that amazing. I love when it rains! If it rained here almost everyday, I would be so happy. I don't live near a beach, so I can't really experience in the rain, but it sounds fun. And if that's where you get your inspiration, then I'm ordering you to drop school and take a long trip to the beach when it rains! Lol! Come on now, do you actually think I would kill any of the Charmed Ones? I still need them to be there for IABBW! Haha! It's not that bad, but I wouldn't recommend the name Margaret to anyone. Hoping to see a new chapter of LOM soon! By the by, I loved your Paige/Piper story. Have you had the mind to do that for a while now or was it just on a whim? Thanks!
TVCrazed- Thanks!
Confessions of a Halliwell: The Diary of Persephone
Chapter Four: In Remembrance Day
Déjà vu is a very strange thing. It's hard to explain déjà vu, even when you've just had it because you're never really sure if you actually did. The exact definition for déjà vu is: The illusion of having already experienced something actually being experienced for the first time. Believe me, I looked it up. For those of you who didn't quite understand, I'll give you an example. Let's say you're sitting at the kitchen table doing your homework and the doorbell rings. Now, you're expecting someone, so your head snaps up to look at the clock and all of the sudden you get this strange head rush and you go, "Wow, I've definitely done that before," when in reality you haven't because no one does their homework while they're waiting for a date. But anyways, you get the idea, right? Déjà vu. Anyone had it yet?
It was the middle of summer, the week of the Fourth of July (also known as Independence Day) to be exact. Now, on the subject of déjà vu again, it's not a very common thing for most people. But, as we all know, I'm not like most people. What would be the fun if I was? Anyways, I get déjà vu about the same time every year. Right around the Fourth of July. I never knew why, but while most people were celebrating the birth of our nation with friends and family, I was miserable. I always get the feeling that something bad has happened and will happen again every time some kid lights up a sparker. This year was no different.
"We need chips," Patience said, grabbing a bag of chips as we walked through the store. Our parents had sent the four of us to grab supplies for the annual Prescott Street Independence Day Bash.
"We do not need chips," I mumbled, trudging along behind my cousins.
"We need soda," Parker said, picking out a few twelve packs of Pepsi and Sprite.
"We do not need soda," I mumbled.
"No, we need fireworks!" Preston exclaimed, running over to a huge display.
"We do not need fireworks," I said a little louder.
"Well if you're going to have fireworks, then we have to have sp-"
"No!" I yelled as Patience reached for a box of sparklers. "We DO NOT need sparkers!"
"Geez, lighten up, Fireball. It's just a little pyrotechnics. You know, fire. Isn't that kind of your specialty?" Preston asked.
"No, this is not fire. It is a cheap and dangerous way to kill yourself," I said bitterly.
"Careful now, you're starting to sound like Parker," Preston warned with a grin.
"Hey!" Parker protested.
"Come on guys, you know those things have always freaked me out, ever since I can remember," I said.
"It's alright, honey. We won't buy them if you don't want to. I'm sure someone else will bring them though, so you have to promise me you won't flip," Patience said. I nodded.
"Yeah, yeah. I'd rather have happy kids with sparkers than pissed off kids with nothing to do," I said.
"That's the spirit!" Preston exclaimed, clapping me on the back. I glared at him as we made our way to the checkout line.
"Hey Percy, what's wrong?" my dad asked later that night as I sat in the Conservatory doing absolutely nothing.
"Nothing," I replied blankly.
"I asked what was wrong, not what you were doing," Dad said sitting next to me. I sighed and looked up at him.
"I don't know, it's just that time of year again. I always get crappy around the Fourth of July. I hate it," I explained.
"Yeah, that's understandable," Dad said. I raised my eyebrow.
"It is?" I questioned.
"Well, I just mean that you've always hated the Fourth of July. There's no reason why that would suddenly change," he said quickly.
"Yeah, but I don't even know why I hate it. It's like I get this strange sense of déjà vu every time some kid lights the first sparkler at the block party. I get this feeling that something really bad is going to happen, like it already has. It's like there's a memory there that I can almost touch, but I can't quite grasp. I don't what it is though," I said. Dad nodded.
"Not every memory that you can't quite grasp is déjà vu," he said. Then he patted me on the knee and left. I just stared after him for a minute, slightly confused.
"Well if that wasn't one of the most cryptic damn things he could have said…"
The next morning, I was rudely awoken by Patience, but what else is new?
"Happy Independence Day, Percy!" she said cheerfully, bouncing on my bed. I groaned and pressed my face into the pillow. "Oh come on, Percy. Whether you hate the holiday or not, the least you can do is look good." I stayed still for a minute before rolling over and looking up sleepily at a grinning Patience. "Ah, see, you can't argue with that, can you?"
"That's cheating. You can't appeal to my fashion sense to get me to participate in crappy overdone holidays," I complained. Patience chuckled.
"Yes, well I'm just as sick of doing this as you are, but just think of all those cute little kids who will miss us if we're not there to entertain them," she pointed out. I sighed.
"I guess you're right. I'll get dressed," I said.
"That's the spirit!" Patience said. I glared.
"Would you guys stop that?" I asked in annoyance. A few hours later, we were all outside setting up for the bash. The boys set up the tables while Patience and I put all the stuff on them.
"Mommy, mommy!" a little girl with curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes exclaimed as she ran up to the fireworks on the table. "Can I don one now?"
"Not now, honey. We have to wait until later," her mother said.
"Oh don't worry about it, Mrs. Jones," Patience said. She bent down to the little girl and handed her a sparkler, pulling out a box of matches as well. "This will just be between us girls," she whispered. I cringed as she lit the match and gasped as the end of the sparkler ignited.
"Oh my god," I gasped. Patience whipped around.
"What is it?" she asked in concern.
"I just had serious déjà vu, only this time I think it was real."
"What are you doing?" Patience asked as I stormed through Parker's house on my way to the attic.
"Patience, whatever happened out there was not déjà vu. It was an actual memory and I need to figure out of what. There has to be some reason behind my hate for the Fourth of July and maybe now I'll be able to find out," I said, flipping through the Book of Shadows.
"And when you find it?" Patience asked.
"When I find it I'll go from there. Here it is," I said. "Hey, this is in Mom's handwriting. I wonder what she had to relive," I said curiously.
"It doesn't matter right now. What matters is what you have to relive," Patience pointed out. I nodded.
"Take me back to what I seek,
Until these words again I speak.
Show me this day's greatest pain
So that I may find peace again," I read. When I looked up from the book to see if it had worked, I saw that Patience was gone.
"Wow! Where'd you come from?" a girl asked. She was about six with blonde hair and blue eyes, very similar to the little girl with the sparkler earlier. Suddenly, the attic door opened and another girl, the same age, burst through the door.
"Found you!" she exclaimed. "Who are you?" she asked defensively when she saw me. I took a second to gather my wits before answering.
"Well Persephone, I'm a friend of your mom's. She just asked me to grab something up here for her," I led to my younger self. The younger Percy seemed to accept this answer and she nodded.
"Come on Abby. Let's go find the others," she said, walking out with the blonde haired girl. I let out the breath that I was holding and walked over to the book to find a glamouring spell. While most people here wouldn't know who I was, my parents would. With my lovely new disguise, I went downstairs to start finding what I was looking for.
"Percy!" another little girl yelled. My head snapped up in panic. I let out a sigh of relief as I realized it was only a six-year-old Patience calling out for my younger counterpart.
"Her and Abby went outside," a little Parker said.
"Yeah, they must be doing fireworks!" Preston exclaimed. They all ran outside and I waited at the top of the steps before following them out. The scene was almost exactly the same as the one I'd left behind, only a few years earlier. My cousins and I were playing happily with the little girl named Abby. I didn't remember this Fourth of July. I didn't even remember the little girl. For a long time thought, nothing happened. No one even acknowledged that I was there, which was a good thing because it gave me time to look for any sign of why I hated this holiday so much.
As it gradually got darker, nothing changed. The children's cries for fireworks got more persistent and finally Phoebe opened them up, giving them to the guys to set off. As the first wave of fireworks went off, all the kids cheered. When they were all set off, the sparkers were handed out. I cringed at the thought of myself ever holding a sparkler. Abby's was the first one lit, then mine, then Preston's, then Parker's, and finally Patience's.
"Let's play sparkler hide and go seek in the backyard!" Preston suggested loudly.
"Be careful you guys!" Piper called. I decided to follow them out back, hoping that I would find my answer there.
"One, two, three, four… ten!" Preston counted. "Ready or not, here I come!" He searched around a few bushes before finding the other four. "I found you guys!"
"Okay, my turn to count," Patience offered. Before anyone had time to move, a demon shimmered in. My immediate reaction was to throw a fireball, but I knew I couldn't change history.
"Mommy!" my younger counterpart screamed. I pressed myself behind a bush as my mom came running past. I then watched as she threw a few orb balls at the demon before he shimmered out. It was too late, though. He'd already done his damage.
The little blonde haired girl named Abby was lying on the ground, dead. Tears came to my eyes as I watched my younger self try fruitlessly to wake the girl up. This was why I hated the Fourth of July so much. I'd witnessed a murder that night of a very good friend. I sadly said the spell again to take me back to my own time. I found that Patience was standing exactly where I'd left her.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I found what I was looking for," I answered.
"How the hell did you do that? You never even left. You just closed your eyes and stood there for about a second before you opened them again. It almost looked like you had a premonition," she explained.
"No, I think a premonition would have been easier. I need some answers though," I said, going to find my mom.
"Hey sweetie, what's up?" Mom asked as I walked up to her.
"We need to talk," I said, leading her around to the backyard. "What happened here, in this backyard when I was six?" I asked. Mom sighed.
"I knew you'd find out eventually. There was a little girl who lived down the street. Her name was Abby Higgins. You and her were good friends, you played all the time. At the bash that year, a demon attacked. He killed Abby. We never found out who he was or where he ended up, but you were devastated. Your dad and I were afraid that you'd never recover, so we used memory dust on the four of you to make you forget about it. Because you were hurt the most though, we couldn't completely erase the memory. That's why you get déjà vu every year at this time," she explained.
"That's what Dad meant when he said that not every memory that I can't quite grasp is déjà vu," I realized. "He was giving me a hint."
"I wrote that spell in the book for you so you could find out what happened when you were ready. I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner, but we never felt it was right," Mom said. I nodded.
"It's okay." After that, I went out to tell my cousins about what happened. They were just as shocked and sad to hear about Abby's death. We all wondered who the demon was. I had a feeling that it wouldn't be long before he came back.
"Where are you going?" Parker asked as I got up from my seat later on.
"Those kids are going into the backyard to play with sparklers. I want to keep an eye on them," I said, going out back.
I watched the kids run around and play for a while, including the girl with the striking resemblance to Abby. The fun was soon interrupted by a demon shimmering in, though. The same demon that killed Abby. The kids screamed and ran around front, but the little girl tripped and fell. As the demon closed in on her, I ran out from behind the corner.
"Not again, you bastard!" I launched quite a few fireballs at him, feeling a huge weight lifted off my shoulders as he burst into flames. I ran over to the little girl, who was scared and crying, and picked her up, pulling her close to my chest.
"The monster tried to hurt me!" she cried.
"Shh, I know. It's okay. He's gone now. He won't be coming back," I promised. The little girl nodded, her bright blue eyes still glazed with tears. "What's your name, sweetie?"
"Abagail," she said shyly. "But you can call me Abby." I smiled.
"Well Abby, I'm Persephone," I said, "But you can call me Percy." She nodded. "Hey, you want to see a trick?" I asked. She nodded again. I took the unlit sparker from her hand and gently blew on it, watching as it ignited. Abby's eyes went wide and I handed it back to her. "You have to promise me you'll keep that a secret, okay? No one else can know about it, not even your parent." Abby nodded again and ran off to find the others.
"So did you take care of everything yesterday?" Patience asked as we made our way to the cemetery the next day. I nodded.
"Yeah, I did. I don't think I'll hate the Fourth of July anymore," I said.
"Why is that?" Patience asked curiously.
"Well, let's just say that for me, it's not just Independence Day," I said as we stopped at a grave.
"What is it then?" Patience asked. I smiled as I put some flowers at the bottom of the headstone marked "Abagail Higgins".
"It's 'In Remembrance' Day."
Well, there you have it, folks. Kind of short, I know, but I liked the concept of it. The next two chapters are going to have really big time jumps in them because I need to end this one at a certain spot. Just so you know. Anyways, hurry up and review so I can get the next chapter up. What are you waiting for? Stop reading! Press the damn button! Let's go people, I haven't got all day! Haha! I'm just kidding. Till next time…
.:.Aut.:.