A Charmed Story - Part Five:
20 Weddings And A Funeral?
Chapter 7

When Phoebe and Tom arrived, there was no time to say anything. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry. At first, they were a little confused about all the action. But then they realised what was wrong. Bianca was lying on the sofa, unconscious. Leo was trying to heal her, but it didn't work, as it seemed.
"What's going on here?" Phoebe asked Jessica, who was still sitting on the chair, trying not to disturb anyone.
"She was yelling and then touching her womb, and then she broke down," the young woman explained. Phoebe nodded.
"She is waking up!" they heard Cole's excited voice. Phoebe turned around and saw how Bianca slowly sat up.
"Are you ok?" Piper asked caressing her cheek.
She nodded and frowned. And then she looked up, her eyes a little scared: "He's alright," she said.
"What?" Odin asked.
"Chris is alright!" she repeated. "Hope knows he is, she told me."
"What?" Phoebe's and Paige's mouths opened widely in disbelief. Jessica frowned, unable to understand what she meant, and Piper sat by Bianca's side, who was being held by her other arm by Cole.
"Sweetie, you may have had a nightmare or a hallucination... Are you ok? You should go to the doctor..." she knew that that pain in the womb wasn't good. Piper was a mother and knew how dangerous things like that could be.
But Bianca shook her head. "I'm ok, Piper... And it's true, she talked to me..." she said, touching her womb as she tried to stand up with the help of Cole, who looked at the others unsure of what to believe. "She said to Chris that he shouldn't tell the clown who he really is... She's helping, she can do that." Suddenly Bianca realised the alarming look of Leo, but it was too late.
Odin had approached the girl attempting to control his agitation. "Do you mean she can do those things? From the womb!" He was really scared. "Is this the first time? Or has she done something like this before?" The Elder tried to touch Bianca's womb, but Cole held his hand strongly, since he had noticed Leo's look.
"Leo, you knew that! And you didn't tell us!" he cried, turning to his Elder-fellow in anger.
"Why should I?" Leo asked in a very cold tone.
"What the hell is going on here?" Phoebe exclaimed, lost and worried.
Paige seconded her. "Guys, we should focus here... Whatever Hope has done, it's good, and it's helping. But Chris is somewhere out there, in a freaky dimension, together with a group of human beings who are waiting to be rescued, so, if you don't mind... Can we try to find them all first, and then you two," and she pointed to Odin and Leo, "can discuss your differences?"
Piper nodded, staring at a very scared Bianca and Jessica. "Paige is right. Let's focus, ok? Something new?" she asked turning to Phoebe.
Tom was still by the empath's side, and looked at her as interested as the others.
"Well, actually... I wanted to ask the same. Who starts?"
They all looked at each other, except Leo and Odin, who still held their glares, furious and worried.

°°°°°°°°°°

Nicki and Steve walked through the school. They were searching for Mr. Smith. 'What a stupid name,' Steve thought. He was the caretaker of the school. The Charmed Ones had been really surprised when they heard of him the first time. They couldn't believe that there WAS one for THAT school.
Anyway, Mr. Smith was an ex-demon. Not like Cole, of course. He was still looking like one. But he had no powers. That makes now... 50 years ago since he lost them. That's why he worked there. He wasn't allowed to leave that place. But even if he could, he wouldn't do it. He liked the school. And it was an easy job. That's why usually he slept most of the day.
"Do you think he knows something?" Nicki asked.
Steve put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a kiss on her cheek. "If someone knows, than it's him," he said. Nicki nodded.
They stopped in front of a small door and knocked. Nothing happened. They knocked again. Nothing.
"What do you want?" they heard a voice behind them.
Steve and Nicki turned around. There he was, Mr. Smith. A demonic guy armed with broom and pail. Nicki couldn't help grinning.
"So?" he asked again.
"Well," Steve began to explain, "The Charmed Ones asked us to do a little research about two former students of this school. And we thought - because you seem to know a lot about what's going on here - that you maybe know them and can tell us something about them."
Mr. Smith smiled widely. He felt flattered and cajoled of being asked. So he grinned and asked them to come into his room and sit down. The young teachers nodded and went in.
It was a nice little room, really well decorated. Much more homelike than they had thought.
Mr. Smith offered them a cup of tea and some cookies, which they took thankful. Then the ex-demon sat down, same as Nicki and Steve, and looked at the others questioningly.
"We're trying to find out something about two students..." Nicki started.
Mr. Smith grinned: "Yeah, you already mentioned that!" Steve giggled.
"Do you know something about Peter Anderson and Jake Flanty?"
The ex-demon frowned, thinking hard. Then he nodded: "Yeah, Peter Anderson... He was a really nice guy. A bit crazy when he came here. But after he had settled down here, and found some friends he became a very nice boy. But then, there was one day where they had to make some potions in the laboratory. Something went wrong and one of his friends got hurt very badly. Well... it was no problem, Gideon healed him, but... I think Peter wasn't able to live with that whole being-a-witch thing. He bound his powers at the same day on his own. Short after that, he left the school."
Steve and Nicki just nodded. 'So... if his powers are still bound, it couldn't be him,' she thought.
"And what about Jake Flanty?" Steve asked.
"Well..." Mr. Smith went on while trying to sit more comfortable, "he was a very talented witch. Not that powerful, but he could copy powers and whenever he tried, he was able to handle those powers perfectly well. Actually, I don't know what happened to him. He was ill... Nobody knew from what exactly, but I believe it was bad root-weed from the witch-florescence... A kind of magical dope, you know." He grinned widely.
Steve grinned, too. Not that he had tried it, but he knew Tom had. But, as his friend had told him, it had been horrifying and he never wanted to do it again...
"Anyway, after that he wasn't the same," the caretaker went on, "he was always jumpy, always panicking... And always talking about clowns... Then he left the school... I'm not sure if he took the exam..."
'So it seems he's the one we're looking for,' Steve thought.
"Do you know where he is now?" Nicki asked.
Mr. Smith shook his head: "The last thing I heard was that he wanted to buy a carrousel. But that was a lot of years ago."
The young teachers looked at each other. Then, they jumped up.
"Thanks a lot," Nicki said, "for the tea and the wonderful cookies."
"Yeah, and for all the information," Steve added," we have to tell this to the sisters immediately." They quickly said goodbye and went to the magical door.

°°°°°°°°°°

Michael was sitting against a tree, frowning, still trying to understand all that weird story. "Man, really, you're a box full of surprises... So you mean that witches have powers even before they're born? But that's great!" The young man was so excited that he had forgotten where they were and all their problems, but Chris shook his head slowly.
"No, actually I... I didn't have any powers at all before being born. It even took me some years to develop them... But it seems that my daughter is very powerful..." he murmured, unable to hide his worries.
"Hey..." Michael mumbled, kneeling by his side and touching his shoulder, "that's something good, isn't it? After all, she has just warned you not to say who you are, and all... She'll be able to do great things."
Chris was impressed by the simple way of thinking and reasoning of the man, as well as by his ease to accept everything as it came. It was hard to believe that he had been so long there, lost, and hadn't gone nuts. He was so positive... But Chris couldn't stop worrying, after all, he...
"I have tried to use my powers, and the clown has seen me, right when I came here! He knows who I am... The warning message arrived too late..." Chris looked in Michael's eyes, which were frowning again.
"Oh..." he murmured, "that's not so good, I guess..."
Both men held their looks, silently, thoughtfully, for a while, until Chris sighed resigned, and leaned his head against the tree. 'Hope,' he thought... That was what he really needed at that time. A little bit of hope. Because everything was so dark around him...

°°°°°°°°°°

"And that's it!" Phoebe finished, grinning of satisfaction because she felt they had discovered important things.
"Interesting..." Paige muttered, pensive. "So we have the guy who was kidnapped by the staff of a circus, but we also have this other boy who had that fever and all, and talked about the Salem trials?"
"And we've got the dates of the trials... All the disappeared people were going to marry on those dates," followed Piper.
Tom, who had been silent most of the time, intervened: "Do you guys think that he chose these couples because they married at those dates, or is it really possible that they had also ancestors related to the trials?"
"Hmmm... Actually, that would be much of a coincidence..." Paige said again, "but we've seen more strange things than that."
"So..." Leo said, standing up and approaching Odin slowly, placing himself in the middle between the Elder and Bianca, to hide the girl from the trajectory of Odin's look. "Maybe you could help. Wasn't that what you wanted to do?" he asked in a cold tone. "After all, you have been an Elder longer than me... Do you know those boys?"
Odin turned his eyes towards Leo's, slowly: "Maybe... But you know well that there are a lot of boys in that school. It's impossible to remember all of them..."
"I wouldn't forget those two stories, if I knew them," Cole said, noticing the tension, and feeling that something was wrong with Odin. Seeing Leo's worried look, he was afraid that something bad was going to happen to someone in the family.
Then, Odin opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment, the magic door to the magic school shrieked, and Nicki and Steve went upstairs quickly.
"We've got news..." they said.
"Hey..." Phoebe said suddenly, "you didn't tell me your part yet. Is there something interesting? Something related to all this?" All the faces turned to look at her.
Bianca was still sitting on the sofa, very pale, and Jessica was holding her hand. Both women had been silent all the time, so now, no one noticed that Jessica had stood up and gone to the window.
"Where are you going?" Bianca asked feebly.
No response.
Meanwhile, Piper had started to tell Phoebe a short version of the story of the shadow, Jessica's bridegroom.
"Is it me or it's getting foggy?" Paige asked suddenly.
Steve and Nicki, the only ones facing the window, looked at it and saw Jessica looking through it. "Hey, Piper... did you by any chance mention a shadow?" Nicki asked. Then she pointed at the window: "Because it's not the fog that is hiding the sun..."
Steve chuckled, realising what she meant. "I guess it's Jessica's bridegroom."
All heads turned around, facing that shadow which again surrounded the girl.
Suddenly Bianca felt something inside her, inside her womb. She touched it frowning.
Piper went over to her. "Everything alright?"
Leo noticed that. He feared what could happen next, so he grasped Odin's arm. "I think we should ask the other Elders about that!" he said shortly. Odin wanted to answer something, but Leo orbed them both to the Elderworld.
"What was...?" Phoebe wanted to ask, confused about Leo, but then she noticed an orange light which grew up around the womb of Bianca.
Piper went a step backwards, surprised and a little shocked. She thought Bianca would be panicking about that, but she didn't.
Instead the Phoenix stood up slowly, while the light got bigger and brighter and was about to surround her completely.
"What the hell is going on here?" Nicki asked with fear. Steve hugged her but he was also afraid about what would happen next.
Cole grasped Phoebe's hand and pressed it a little. She looked at him smiling: "Don't worry. I think something wonderful is going on here, I can feel it." He smiled back and nodded.
Bianca went slowly over to Jessica and that shadow. She didn't feel fear, not about him, not about the light. It was a warm light, and she could feel the presence of her daughter. She could feel her love.
And when she was close enough, it was as if the light around her reached out to that shadow. Suddenly everything was lightened for a second, so everyone had to close their eyes. Then they heard a yell. Jessica's yell.
Piper opened her eyes, her hands up, ready to face a demon or whatever... But Phoebe held her back. "Look," she said, pointing at the girl.
She was still standing at the window. Bianca stood next to her, looking a little tired but smiled. Jessica smiled, too. She smiled while she was embracing her bridegroom!
"Oh my God, " Tom muttered.
Jason was still a little transparent but he turned more and more real by every second... Same as Jessica did before.
Cole went over to Bianca and helped her sit down again.
"Wow," Paige said shaking her head, "now I believe that Hope can really do such things..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was still thinking about Hope... his girl. He smiled again. She was so amazing. He still thought about her words... That he should be careful.
Michael sighed: "Well... Can I ask another question?"
Chris nodded: "Ask whatever you want."
"So... How can your daughter be more powerful than you?"
Chris frowned: "What do you mean?"
"Well you said you had to develop your powers after you had been born, and she is already powerful before she is born," he explained, "so she must be more powerful than you, right? But I thought that if you passed the witch-thing on to her, she can't be more powerful than you... Or could she?... Or is her mother...?"
Chris stopped him with a gesture. Then he sighed: "That's a really complicated story."
Michael raised his eyebrows: "So there is something about you, that...?"
Chris nodded before he ended his question: "But swear to me, to keep that secret, ok?" He looked at him begging. Then he went on: "Because now I think, that's what my daughter meant." Michael nodded.
"But anyway..." Chris went on, "my brother is more powerful than my mum and my dad together... There is no rule for that power-thing..." He grinned first; then he began to laugh.
Michael laughed too. Even if he didn't understand everything, he liked that guy more and more, minute by minute. And that moment he wished, they could stay friends even when this was over.
Then, suddenly, they heard another person laughing... But it was an evil laugh. And there he stood in front of them, the clown!
Chris noticed the fear in Michael's eyes. He himself felt not that good, either.
The clown went a little closer and put Michael up to his feet. "Need you," he muttered. Then Michael disappeared to wherever. Chris frowned. That disappearing looked a little like shimmering.
Then the clown turned to the Elder-witch. "And now to you," he said, pulling Chris up, too. "What have they done? Your friends? How did they steal another one of my holograms?" he asked angry.
Chris shrugged: "How could I know? Remember? You've trapped my here!"
The clown glanced at him very angry; then he threw him about 20 meters through the air right back into that old carrousel. Chris crashed into a demon-figure. His back hurt a lot, but he didn't want to let the clown see his pain. So he got back on his feet, when his enemy reached him. Again he grasped him by his neck. "Pray that they stop it or I swear you'll pay for that," he whispered to his ear. Then he threw him back to the middle of the carrousel and disappeared.
Chris coughed. "Great," he mumbled. He felt that his arm was broken. He thought about healing himself, but he didn't dare. He wasn't sure if he was being watched by the clown in some way. And to let him know that he was also an Elder, was the last thing Chris wanted that moment.
So he sat up and leaned his back at the wood of the carrousel and closed his eyes. Now he was alone.

°°°°°°°°°°

All the people in the attic were staring at the couple speechless, feeling all their happiness and love. Phoebe let some tears out, and soon she started to weep silently. Cole smiled lovingly at her and pressed her hand in his. The empath was feeling now exactly the same as those two lovers, who were still embraced and kissing each other, their tears mixing as their cheeks came into contact.
Piper was also smiling, as well as Paige, and Bianca did the same, but hers was a sad smile, because Chris wasn't there. Steve and Nicki observed them too, hugging each other, in silence. Tom, behind all of them, was trying to hide his face, which was covered with tears. He wasn't an empath so why the hell was he crying? Was he a baby? That feeling really bothered him, man!
After a while that everyone in the room respected, Jason turned to them and took the word, since Jessica was so moved that she was unable to say anything.
"What do you guys want of us?" he asked not so confident as he had wished.
"What?" the three sisters exclaimed at once. Tom looked at him in disbelief, and Bianca frowned, feeling her own anger inside.
"Jason..." Jessica whispered in a warning tone.
Cole stepped towards the man: "Hey buddy... What do you think we want? We have just saved you and your girlfriend..."
"You're witches..." Jason persisted, stepping backwards.
Jessica, pressed his hand and made him look in her eyes: "Love, they are good witches. They have saved us! If you don't trust them at least trust me..."
Everyone kept silent, expectant, and Jason seemed to reconsider his attitude but said nothing, so the girl followed: "Sweetie, they saved us... And one of them is now trapped because of that. They've lost one of their relatives just to save us!"
Jason swallowed and turned to look at the others in the room: "You mean Chris, don't you?"
Bianca felt her heart jump of joy and fear at the same time. "Have you seen him? Have you talked to him? Is he alright?" she asked, approaching him.
Jason looked at Jessica in search for help. "She's his wife, honey... They're waiting for a baby..." she smiled sweetly at her bridegroom.
"Well, actually I... I didn't talk much with him. He wanted to talk, but I thought he was on the clown's side..." Then he turned to his bride again: "I saw how they took you, honey... I thought he had done something bad to you."
"Chris would have never hurt anyone!" Bianca cried in despair.
Paige rushed to hold her, as Phoebe let Cole embrace her. Piper shook her head. "It's ok, we understand... But now, we need your help... Jason. Please... Chris is my..." she nearly let slip the truth but could stop herself. "He's my family. We want him back as much as you wanted to be with Jessica. We're gonna release all the couples too. But we need your help. So tell us, where is he? How can we find him? Does the clown know anything?"
Jason seemed to be overwhelmed by so many questions. He shrugged, speechless.
"Ok..." Tom said, "give the guy some time. Sit down, Jason... Maybe you want some coffee? and Jessica? I can bring them all for you... Sit down, and relax, and be ready to speak in a while." He grinned, and shimmered downstairs.
Suddenly, Jason stiffened and turned paler: "What has he just done?"
Paige sighed, as she helped Bianca to a seat: "That's a long story, but it's called shimmering, something that only bad guys do, but not in this family and among its friends, and..."
She was cut off by Jason again: "That's what the clown does. That's exactly what he does."
Every face turned to look at him shocked, and Steve and Nicki's the most shocked of all. They realised that they hadn't told them about their own discoveries yet...
But Jessica, at that moment, asked the only thing they hadn't asked yet: "Is that the same thing you did? That... shadow? How did you make it, Jason?" she asked, still embracing her love.
Jason looked at her, not knowing what to answer. Then he shook his head: "I don't know, really, I've no idea... I just saw how that light flashed you and how you disappeared with them with those blue lights. From that second on all I thought is that I needed to find you. I was so scared that you could be hurt."
The others looked at him with a feeling of pity. They could hear the fear in his voice. There was a lot of fear.
Phoebe sighed and went over to him. She sat down next to him and took his hand, looking him into the eyes. "You're safe here," she whispered, "both of you. Whatever happens, we will protect you." He nodded weakly.
That moment, Tom returned, shimmering. Jason looked a little more scared again.
"Tom," sighed Phoebe, "couldn't you use the stairs?"
"Why should I?" he answered.
"Because we have a guest who is not used to that shimmering... even not from a gooddie as you are."
Jason smiled again, hearing these words. That witch, who really seemed to care, was educating that boy who was doing that evil disappearing-thing... She wouldn't do it that way, if he really was a danger. "So, what is that shimmering?" he asked still with fear and unsureness, but a lot calmer now.
"Well..." Tom wasn't sure about what to answer but then he saw Phoebe and also Bianca nodding, "Shimmering is a way to move from one place to another. Just a bit like the beaming in Star Trek." Jason frowned.
"But we do it on our own, we don't need any equipment," Bianca added.
Jason looked at her: "You... you can do that, too?"
Bianca nodded: "I'm a Phoenix, and Tom is half-Phoenix and half-witch."
Jason swallowed, but feeling the head of his bride lying on his chest and noticing the hand of that other witch who seemed to understand him so well, made him still feel comfortable in a way.
"You don't have to be afraid of them," Phoebe said, "deep down inside their hearts they are good people even if their blood is from a different kind from yours."
"Here," Tom said and handed him a cup of tea, "first I wanted to make coffee, but then I thought Piper's special-tea is much more useful in this situation."
Paige frowned, looking at the oldest sister: "You told him how to make your special-calm-down-everyone-tea... and not me?"
Piper shrugged: "I didn't show him, I did it a few times for him, and you know how fast he learns such things." Paige smiled nodding.
Jason took the tea thankful and drank it. It was very sweet and made him feel a little better.
"So, can you tell me more about my husband?" Bianca asked impatient.
Jason looked at his bride who nodded, then he said: "Not really. As I said, I thought he was my enemy... so... But Michael wanted me to talk to him, he told me that he was a friend, even if I couldn't believe that. He told me that he was a good witch, and that he... I mean Michael hopes that the family of this witch would help us all to get out." And then he added muttering: "Also, I couldn't believe that."
"Is that all?" Cole asked with a sigh.
"Well... Michael told me that the clown was angry against him, because he freed Jessica somehow... I think now he will be a lot angrier, because you freed me too." He lowered his eyes, not sure what else to say or to do.
"Who is that Michael?" Piper asked.
But before Jason could answer, Odin and Leo returned, making the bridegroom jump up again.
"Don't worry," Piper said, "that was orbing, that's what the good guys usually do, if they can." She went over to Leo and kissed him. "Everything alright?" she whispered to his ear.
"For the moment," he answered quietly. Then he looked at Odin, whose eyes were focused on Bianca and that new guest. Then he rose an eyebrow and was about to start to speak, but Leo interrupted him.
"We talked to the others... And they said that this witch, Peter, had given up his powers long ago..." he explained, "and Jake left the school before his exam. That all we could find it out because Jake did something to his whitelighter to keep him away."
Odin was looking at Leo, and then looking at the man again. He frowned, then said: "Leo I think there are some things we..."
"No!" Leo exclaimed. "As Paige said before, there are more important things than that. And I promise to you, if you dare to do anything... you will pity it!" Piper frowned about the words of her husband. Looking at Odin she thought he was a little afraid... maybe because of Leo's words? Or of something else?
The others didn't pay attention to that short interaction. Nicki and Steve had stepped forward: "Well, I think we found out a little more."
"So, what is it?" Paige asked.
Then the young couple began to explain what Mr. Smith had told them.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was still sitting in the middle of the carrousel. He didn't know how much time had passed since the clown was gone. Even if it felt like nothing, he was sure it must have been about an hour or more... Or had it just been a few moments... He shook his head. Michael was right, he had already lost his sense of time.
He sighed looking around. There was nothing else than a few trees and behind them a lot more. Michael told him not to go there, or the clown would hurt him. The forest was so dark that he couldn't say what was behind, even if he could see the roofs of some of the rides.
Chris was thinking about what he could do by now. 'He already knows that I'm a witch,' he thought, 'so why not trying to use my witch-powers?' He got up slowly. His back hurt, his arm much more. He went out of the carrousel seeking for a branch or something, something he could try to move with his mind.
After he walked around a little he found a little stone in front of his feet. He smiled, then sighed. Then he tried to move it, but it didn't work. "Damned!" he yelled furious. 'This situation sucks,' he thought.
At that very moment Michael returned. "Hey," he said, "what are you doing?" He went a little closer and asked: "Are you ok.?"
Chris smiled weakly: "Not really."
Michael noticed the way he was holding his arm. He put out his tie and used it as a noose to stabilise it.
"Thanks," Chris said and then asked, "what are you doing here?"
Michael grinned: "I ran away... I should be now in the ghost-train scaring little kids, but I wanted to know if you were alright. That's why I came back."
"So you'd better return," Chris said, "I'm not sure, but I think he's watching me. At least, after my friends freed Jason, as it seems."
Michael looked surprised. He wanted to add something but they heard another voice.
"TOO LATE!" the clown yelled angry. The two men turned around facing that guy with his evil smile. But he wasn't alone.

(Chapter 7 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)