(Author's Note: From this Chapter one – the material is gonna get more mature and more serious. Enjoy!)

Chapter Nine – Echoes of the Past

Wyatt sat on his bed, the moonlight shown through into his room. Everything he knew was finally coming in on him, what had he gotten himself into? He felt bad about not helping Bianca with her problem but he knew it would be best to have her go check with her mom about her issues and new powers. He then began to think about what had happened in the past month or so.

Leo walking out on the family, Paige coming back, Chris on the swim team, Wyatt being pushed his limits physically in footballs and witch duties and school work. He had successfully kept a stable superior GPA (Grade Point Average), and at the middle of his senior year he had a 4.3 Average; ranked two in his class behind Terry Louis with a 4.35 GPA. Wyatt had been accepted into all the colleges he applied too: Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, UCLA, University of Connecticut, and USC. He remembered when he orbed his mother all over the country that one weekend they visited Yale and Harvard and Wyatt so excited just to be there, but of coarse that was two years ago.

He shook his head, trying to stop the memories from flooding back, he couldn't deal with it, not now. But then he never dealt with his mothers death, he always stayed strong for Chris, he had to protect him. He picked up his stack of acceptance letters. He opened his door, and he walked into a black hall way. Paige was back her old room, Chris was in Aunt Phoebe's old room. He walked to the room and saw the door was ajar.

He moved it open, and saw Chris laying on his stomach mouth open drooling on his pillow. He looked around posters of bands, swimming, pictures of all his friends and family. Most of his walls were bare, but had that on it at least. Chris left his homework out again…he was working on History. He closed his text book and put his notes on the book. He remembered how Piper would sometimes to do this when they would sleep-STOP IT! He told himself.

He then shook his head once again and looked at Chris, he remembered how crushed he was after his mom died. The countless nights Wyatt would just sit there with his brother and listen or just be there as an older brother. Wyatt guessed that's why he probably never dealt with his mothers death cause he had to be with Chris. Wyatt looked down at the stack of Acceptance letters in his hand…and then Chris. He had been thinking about this weeks before even getting accepted into the schools.

Wyatt smirked as he leaned on the wall in the door way. Before his mothers death Wyatt and Chris were virtually strangers to each other and they didn't really talk to each other. Till that horrible day, a year ago…

…Chaos was in the Halliwell manor, explosions left and right, demons and warlocks everywhere, Someone screamed it was Phoebe.

"WYATT!" Piper yelled, "GET CHRIS OUT OF HERE! NOW"

"I am not leaving you!" A 16 year old Wyatt shouted back.

"DON'T ARGUE WITH ME! GO!" Piper yelled, closing the door of there bedroom door.

Present day shook his head, trying to stop the echoes of the past from haunting him, but he couldn't control it.

"Chris." A sixteen year old Wyatt said turning around.

"Wyatt, we have to help mom!" A fourteen year old Chris replied.

"Just what I was thinking – Just go for it?"

"Yep!" Chris moved forward, swung his arm and the door flung open. Wyatt was set back at his brother' willing to do this, they both ran from their rooms and into the smoky house.

"PHOEBE! NO!" Piper yelled

"PIPER BEHIND YOU!" Paige yelled, "LEO NO!"

Piper screamed and the sound of something being crashed into something. Then a man screaming.

"Dad." Chris said, two boys ran downstairs, Chris bumped into a seven foot tall demon with green and black skin, in a black cloak and fingers with nails sharp enough to slice through anything. He beard his white razor white teeth. Chris shot his hand forward and the demon flew into the grandfather clock. Wyatt had already ran into the family room, and Chris saw white balls of light through the smoke; Energy balls. Chris looked around him, he saw his Aunt Phoebe laying on the floor by the stairs.

"AUNT PHOEBE!" He yelled, he ran to her side, he touched her, limp. Blood came from her head and stomach. He touched her neck, no pulse.

"WYATT AUNT PHOEBE IS DEAD!"

"CHRIS!" Wyatt yelled, "WHERE ARE YOU?"

Chris was about yell back then he looked up and the demon he threw into the clock was standing over him, with his white blood dripping from his head. "YOU STUPID WITCH!" He took his razor sharp nails and sliced Chris across the Chest. Chris screamed in Pain.

"LEAVE MY SON ALONE!" Piper yelled, she came in from the smoke and gestured and the demon was shot back into the foyer. Piper knelt down by Chris and looked at his wound. His shirt was cut through and four deep cuts across the chest. "What are you doing?"

"PIPER!" Leo yelled.

"Wyatt where are you?" Piper yelled.

"Aunt Paige behind you!" Wyatt yelled from the smoke and then a giant explosion from the family room, the demon was killed by Wyatt.

"I am here!" Wyatt said coming towards the stairs. Then another demon, human like, shimmered in, and took Piper and stabbed her into the neck.

"NO!" Chris and Wyatt both screamed. Chris stood up, wincing at his pain and flung the demon away from his mother, and before the demon hit the ground, Wyatt vanquished him. It was over. Chris knelt down by his mother, tears coming to his eyes. Wyatt looked at his father knocked out in the dinning room, his aunt Phoebe dead by the stairs, his Aunt Paige walking up behind him, beaten up, and his mother dying. He knelt down.

"Chris back off." Wyatt said, he closed his eyes and pulled the knife from his mothers neck, and placed his hands over wound. But Piper exhaled and was gone. It was useless. Wyatt kept his hands over his mother, not accepting that she was dead. Then he pulled back his hands and his shoulders shook. Paige put her hand over her mouth, and Chris was already crying.

Present day Wyatt shook his head. He tried for so long not to think about it. He sniffled, he left the room, and stood by the landing on the stairs. He threw his acceptance letters and they landed on the floor below. He looked around trying not think of his mother, but everything reminded him of her. He put his forehead on the wall, and cried. He didn't not only cry at the loss of his mother, but his Aunt, and his father leaving, and decisions he'll have to make soon.

Chris layed on his bed, he was awake. He only pretended to sleep when Wyatt walked into the room. He heard him crying in the hallway, he had never heard Wyatt cry, or seen him cry for that matter. He sat up, was he really hearing what he thought he was hearing. Where was Aunt Paige? He grabbed a white shirt and put it on. He then walked to his doorway and looked over and saw his brother on his knees crying into them. Chris walked over and knelt down next to his brother. He put his hand on Wyatt's back. Wyatt looked up, shocked. He turned his head away wiping his tears away.

"You should be sleeping." Wyatt said, "Go back to bed."

"No." Chris said calmly.

"Yes, please!"

"No." He replied in the same calm voice, "I am gonna sit here until you're okay."

Wyatt rolled his eyes, even though he wasn't looking at Chris, he just looked forward. Into the moonlit manor.

"Is it mom?" Chris asked

"Yeah." Wyatt replied, "I am sorry I wasn't to save her."

"Its okay, it was her time. I know that know. I've learned that much of it."

"Then teach me, cause I don't know. I really don't." Wyatt replied as two more tears fell from his cheeks. He looked over at his younger brother, he saw the face he missed so much, the calm, gentle Chris he knew.

"I am so sorry."

"Don't blame yourself."

"I do."

"Don't." Chris replied, he looked down and saw his Harvard acceptance letter on the stairs. "What is this doing here?" Chris got up to get the letter, then he saw the rest scattered on the floor below. Using his telekinesis he brought the letters to him. "What are all these doing out here?"

"Nothing." Wyatt replied.

"Have you decided on which school you wanna go to yet?"

"No. Not yet." Wyatt lied.

"Okay." Chris said, he put the papers in a neat little stack. He then knelt down on the stair infront of his brother. "Are you going to be okay?"

Wyatt smiled at Chris, and then broke down again. Chris leaned forward and hugged his brother. Wyatt felt weird, he didn't expect Chris to do this. Wyatt cried into Chris shoulder for a few minutes. Chris rubbed Wyatt's back in comfort. He looked down.

"Shit…you still working out?" Chris said trying to cheer him up. "You have like no fat on your body." Wyatt always liked it when people talked about good he looked, he was self centered like that. Chris let go.

You can't always get what you want, not matter how hard you go for it or how bad you want it. His mother would always say. He thought about this all the time in his classes, at P3, eating dinner, doing his homework. He walked out into the Hallway, he looked down and took one acceptance out of the packet. And the rest he went to his cell phone down in the kitchen. He sat down at the dinning room table, it was the middle of the night and began to call the numbers on the papers. It was middle of the night of coarse he got recordings.

"Hi you've reached Michael Drummery, Head of the Offices of Undergraduate Admissions…sorry I am not here to take your call. Please leave a message." He waited and he heard the beep; and then Wyatt spoke, "Hi, my name is Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, and I am calling and I am going to decline acceptance at your college. Thank you for the opportunity." He made that same call six times, and the seventh call. He held off on that. He kept this school and really thought about it.

"Go here?" He said, "Or be with Chris for one more year after Graduation?"

Wyatt never felt so lost or confused in his life. He threw out six of the seven letters and kept one in his hand. He walked up to his room and put the letter on his desk and sat back down on his bed.

Wyatt sat in his room, dwelling over his Chemistry AP (Advanced Placement) notes, the big exam was tomorrow and he was no where ready. He threw down his pencil and leaned back in his chair and sighed, if it wasn't for his scholarship he would have dropped the class two weeks ago at the semester. He looked up at the two pictures on his desk. One was of him and Chris at Disneyland only two months ago, and one of him and Alicia; his girlfriend. She was in Italy with her family until Tuesday.

"Two days." He said. He remember the sound of her voice from the phone call earlier that night, "Babe, think of it this way. I'll be back on Tuesday morning and you will get a present!" Wyatt loved it when she talked like that. He just relaxed.

"I give up." He said getting up and laying down on his bed. He pulled off his shirt and layed in his jeans. He looked out the window into the crystal night, the stars were every visible and the moon was at a crescent. He then thought of Alicia, closed his eyes and let his imagination take over.