AN: Hey guys thanks so much for all your wonderful and supportive reviews :D I finally found time to update...sorry fo making you guys wait for so long but I had the nastiest case of writer's block...anyways enough of my endless ramblings. Enjoy Chapter 2 :)
Chapter 2: A Strange Encountering
Piper sat on an old rotting tree stump in the middle of the backyard. It was one of the only things that stood out amongst the dead garden. She was surrounded by tall weeds that came up to her shoulders once she sat down. She was staring off into the distance. 5:30 her watch had said, for Piper that was a late start. As she continued to stare off into the horizon, rays of sunlight were begining to appear, giving the sky and lake a light orange tint, it was abosolutely breath taking.
"I don't want to leave" Piper sobbed into Dan's chest.
"It's ok baby, we'll call eachother and we'll always talk." he assured her.
"But I'll be so far away from you" she whined.
"I know, I know" he cooed as he rocked her back and forth in his arms.
'Maybe I should've ended it when I left.' Piper contemplated in her head. 'Long distance relationships are just so hard to handle' she argued. 'No you love Dan' a voice inside her screamed. 'No you don't!' another voice argued. "What the hell?" she muttered angrily, "Make up your mind Piper!" she scolded herself. She breathed in deeply and continued to think about her past. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, she glanced up, startled and saw it was her younger sister.
"Hey, you scared me"
"Sorry" Phoebe apologised sheepishly and sat down next to Piper on the ground.
"Couldn't sleep?" Piper inquired. She knew Phoebe was not a morning person as she often slept in til 2 or 3 in the afternoons on weekends.
"Yea, just...you know...thinking"
"Yea...me too..."
"The lake is abosolutely beautiful in the morning" Phoebe commented.
"It's always beautiful" Piper agreed. "The only thing that's beautiful in this awful place" She spat bitterly, blinking back tears.
"Hey...Piper's everything's gonna be ok...I know you miss Dan and all...but everything is gonna be ok...I promise." Phoebe said standing up and wrapping her arms around her older sister. "After all, life is like a movie" she joked.
Piper snorted slightly. "You and drama" she muttered affectionately.
"You know me" Phoebe shrugged with a smile plopping herself back down on the ground. "You know...with a little paint and a lot of hard work...this place well be as good as new.." she remarked, looking back at the run-downed cottage.
"Psh...it's gonna take more than paint just to fix this dump up"
"I think it's cozy, you know...the three of us...living here...beside a lake..."
Piper was silent. 'Yea except now we have to start our lives all over again' she thought. But deep down, she knew Phoebe was right, the idea of all three of them living together on a lake was a little appealing, but she was way to subborn to admit it.
"Come on, let's go and wake Prue, maybe we can drive down to town and get some breakfast" she suggested.
The sisters got up and walked hand in hand back to the front where the car was parked. Phoebe shuddered at the sight of it trying to push out thoughts that she had spent a full night cramped up inside that box. Prue was still fast asleep in the driver's seat, her face pressed up against the glass window, her loud snoring could still be heard by the two younger sisters standing outside watching her sleep. Phoebe walked over and pulled open the driver door. Prue fell out of her seat and screamed, she threw out her hands over the steering wheel to stablize herself and keep from falling onto the ground.
"PHOEBE!" Prue screamed
"Hi" She smiled sweetly at her sister, causing Prue to throw her a dirty look.
"What do you want?" She growled, half asleep.
"Breakfast" Phoebe answered bluntly as she climbed into the back seat of the car.
"What time is it?"
"Nearly 6:00" Piper answered as she settled herself comfortably in the passenger seat.
"And where do you propose we go?" Prue asked
"Home!" Phoebe piped.
"Shut up" Prue said through gritted teeth, home reminded her of Victor, and Victor made her mad.
"Into town" Piper said ignoring Phoebe, although home was exactly w here she wanted to be, home, on Prescott Street. "We can get some groceries while we're there too" she continued.
"Ok...Where's town?" clearly the oldest sister was losing her patience
"I don't know" Piper said tired, "Just drive around, and hopefully we come across something."
"What kind of stores open up at 6 am anyways?" muttered Prue quietly
"Oh look, civilization" Phoebe remarked sarcastically as the girls pulled into town after driving across an empty highway for over forty mintues.
"Stop with the drama Phoebe"
"Wow Grampa must have wanted suclusion pretty badly" Piper observed as the three girls walked into the nearest store
"Yea well from this world, who wouldn't want suclusion from it?" Prue spat angrily
"Ok what do we need" Piper asked ignoring Prue's latest comment.
"I don't know, how about we just run around until we find something useful?"
"Well, we need to fix up the cottage, so paint." Piper continued still ignoring Prue. She couldn't help but feel a little angry, her older sister's negative attitude was not doing any of them any good. Wasn't it her stupid idea to move up here anyways? But then again, Prue was normally like this until she drowned herself with numerous cups of coffee in the morning
"Lots of paint" Phoebe piped up. "What about garden supplies? We have to fix up the front and back yards."
"Uh...I think Grampa might have some of those lying around in his boat house."
"FOOD!" The youngest sister suddenly shouted, shocked that she had forgotten about eating although it felt like her stomach was eating itself up inside.
"We'll get to it Phoebe" Prue snapped.
The old man stared intently at the three girls as he was slowly scanning their grocery items, never once did he take his icy, emotionless eyes off the sisters. Prue shifted her eyes occasionally to meet his. She couldn't help but feel bothered by his persistent staring and no doubt her younger sisters had felt the same, or even worse as they had taken to cowarding behind her. Even though Prue stood infront of her and Phoebe, protecting them, Piper could help but still feel his eyes peircing through her older sister's and into her.
"You girls seem familar" he finally said in a raspy voice that made Piper's spine shiver and her skin rise in millions of tiny goosebumps. She looked over at Phoebe who clung on to Prue's right arm.
"You must have us mistaken for someone else, we don't know anyone in this area" Prue said acting boldly and praying that her quivering voice wouldn't give her away.
"Oh really? Is that so?" he inquired, suddenly intrigued, he cocked up his eyebrows in curiosity.
"Yup!" Phoebe piped up in an attempt to support her sister. "We just moved here" she stated enthusiastically.
"Did you now?" he said, even more interested than before. Prue shot Phoebe a 'shut-up-now-or-I-will-kill-you-look' However instead of acknowledging her death glare, Phoebe decided to ignored her older sister and continue talking.
"Yup! Into the cottages by the lake" she piped
"You wouldn't happen to be talking about the old Halliwell Cottage now would you?"
"You knew our grandfather?" Prue asked sharply. She could feel imense anger building up inside of her, but she couldn't pinpoint why exactly.
"I knew more than just your grandfather...I knew his daughter..." he whispered hoarsely, placing emphasis on the word knew. The three sisters froze at the mention of their mother. Piper stole a quick glance at Prue, whose face wore an emotion she couldnt' quite read.
"You knew Patty?" Piper asked, her voice cleary quivering.
"More than just knew" he rasped. "You Patty's daughters?" he inquired
There was a long moment of silence. Prue finally felt something snap in her, she quickly turned away to aviod meeting her younger sisters' eyes, large tears were now flowing steadily down her face, her body shook uncontrollably as she attempted to silence her sobs.
"...yea" Phoebe replied timidily, her throat dry.
The old man's eyes grew wide with a mix of shock and fear. "Y-y-ou are?" he stuttered
"Yea...why?" Piper asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Get out of that house!" he whispered loudly.
"Excuse me?" Piper asked appalled at his sudden change in behaviour.
"Get out of that house!" he repeated
"Why?"
"It's cursed, evil surrounds it, there's something strange about that cottage, before it was abandoned people could always hear screams and explosions coming from it, something supernatural resides there, it's where your mother died...killed by...a demon."
"Penny Halliwell?"
"Yes officer?"
"Im afraid we have some bad news regarding your daughter." he said solemnly, his eyes shifted from the young girl peaking out from behind Gram's legs. Gram's face tightened and turned grave.
"What is it?" she swallowed hard.
"Patty Halliwell's body was found at your family cottage, she...she drowned...the third one this summer."
"Our mother drowned!" Prue snapped. Turning around to face him, fury in her eyes. "In a lake!" she eyed him evily.
"Oh is that what they told you?" the old man hissed. "Well don't listen to them, they don't know anything. She was murdered"
The oldest Halliwell looked like she had been slapped. Prue was silent, she didn't say anything, instead she stood, rooted to her spot, shaking with anger, fist clenched. Her tears were still flowing, but she no longer cared if her sisters saw. Finally, she acted, she stalked over to the counter, grabbed their grocery bags, and walked out of the store, Piper and Phoebe following her.
"GET OUT OF THAT HOUSE!" he yelled after them. As he watched them leave, the old man smirked to himself. "They won't survive...for long..." he whispered.
"You just had to open your big mouth didn't you Phoebe? Couldn't keep it shut? Didn't mom ever tell you never talk to strangers?" Prue spat angrily.
"Don't talk about mom like that"
"Why not? It's not like you care! If you did you would have shut up!"
Phoebe stopped walking. She glared at Prue angrily. Piper stopped as well between her two sisters, she glanced to and from each sister and knew that she was forced to be in the middle once again.
"Don't...don't you dare say I don't care about mom!"
"You---"
"Guys! I think we're short one grocery bag." Piper remarked.
"---don't care about mom!"
"Oh and you would know how? hmm? It's not like you care about me! I bet you, you spend half your time pretending I don't even exist. I bet you, you wish I didn't exist!"
"How dare you even have the nerve to say I don't care about you? I GAVE UP EVERYTHING FOR YOU AND PIPER!"
"NO! You gave up everything for Piper, not for me, for Piper, you just never considered that Piper came in a package deal...me..."
"YOU---
"GUYS! WE'RE SHORT A GROCERY BAG!"
"ALRIGHT FINE! WE'LL GO BACK AND GET IT!" Prue roared enraged. "God damnit it's only 8 o'clock and I already wish this day was over!"
"Excuse me!" Piper called as the three walked back into the small grocery store. The old man was no where to be found, but their grocery bag was standing on the counter. "Hey!" she yelled again.
"Damnit Piper just take the bag and go"
"Yea...well...except for the part where we forgot to pay for the groceries"
"Yea well I think he kinda owes us" Prue jeered sarcastically. "Or is it every stranger that comes up to you and starts telling you that your mother was murdered?"
Piper sighed, Prue was normally not one for patience, and in the morning she was normally even worse. So she decided not to argue and walked over to pick up the bag. As she did, her foot landed in something wet. Piper looked down and noticed that she had stepped into a large puddle of water. A small trickle of water followed from the counter and continued to leak into the puddle.
"Ugh..." she groaned, shaking her foot out wildly, "my shoes...my shoes..." she whined quietly to herself. "Stupid place has a leak!"
"Seriously, anytime now Piper!"
AN: Sorry about the crappy ending...writer's block attacking me once again. But I'm working on chapter 3 and hope to have it finished soon. Anyways please read and review :) Suggestions are always welcome :)