Well this is chapter 7. This is Phoebe's POV, by Jess (motormouth2005) Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed!

Chapter 7 - Secrets in the Night

I'm stood alone on some kind of mountain, I think. Then ...

"Mum?" I breathed, hardly daring to hope.

"Hi, baby." She whispered.

"Mum." I choked.

"Baby, be strong, OK?" She took my hands in hers. "You can get through this. Stick together."

With my sisters? Is that what she means?

"We're barely talking, mum. We're not even a family any more -"

"Of course you are. You will always have your family, Phoebe. The power of four." She hissed, barely audabile.

"What?"

"Go to the attic." She said. "The attic. Be well, my darling. Blessed be."

I woke with a start, the light from the full moon shining through a gap in the curtains.

It's the middle of the night. Literally. It's about five minutes from midnight.

I don't think I've ever been awake at this time before.

Weird.

I laid back on my pillows, thinking about our "grandad". Prue didn't get rid of him. She couldn't. That scares me. I always thought Prue could fix anything. She's like a less scary version of Grams.

Sevron's locked in Grams' room. All the bedrooms in the manor lock, but Grams would never let us. She said it was a fire hazard. But I found the keys when I was seven. So yesturday I locked him in. The key's still on my bedside table.

My thoughts turned to my dream. It was so vivid. I could even smell the perfume she wore.

I only know that's her perfume because when Prue was ten she found a bottle of it, and poured it all over herself and her pillow, in some kind of attempt to be close to mum.

I suddenly smell that sent again. Here. Now.

Does this house have an attic?

Yeah. There's some stairs at the end of the hall, but grams always said it lead to a closet. That she couldn't open.

Without even thinking about it, I found myself walking up those stairs, and trying the door.

It's locked.

Maybe I should look for a key?

I turned away, and heard a loud creak.

The attic door opened on it's own. Weird.

I stepped inside, my footsteps muffled by the thick layer of dust of the floor. I sneezed, sending more dust flying into the air.

After a five minutes sneezing fit, I could finally open my eyes and look around the room. A patch of moonlight is shining through the stained glass windows, illumination an old trunk.

It opened easily, it wasn't locked or anything.

Inside is a few bottles, some empty, some with coloured liquid in, baring labels such as "Stun" and "Hangrenade".

But right in the middle is a dusty old book, with some kind of celtic symbol on the front. It doesn't have a title.

It's heavy, lifting the cover is hard. The pages are yellow with age, and I'm a little scared they may crumble under my touch. But they don't.

The first page simpy says "The Book Of Shadows" in large curly writing. The next one has writing on it, decorated with pictures. Pictures of women sleeping, then awake, fighting ... monsters.

What kind of book is this?

There's more curly writing, and without thinking, I start to read it aloud.

It's weird, like some kind of old peom. It doesn't make a lot of sence.

"Hear now the words of the witches, The secrets we hid in the night, The oldest of gods are envoked her, the great work of magic is sought. In this night and in this hour, I call upon the ancient power, Bring your powers to we sisters four, We want the power, give us the power."

Whoa. That's a weird poem.

I thought I heard some movment downstairs, so I grabbed the book and took it to my room.

Apparently one of our anncesters was a witch, named Melinda Warren. She was burned at the stake, but she predicted each other the "Warren Witches" would get stronger and stronger "culminating in the arrival of four sisters". The Charmed Ones.

I think we're those sisters. The protectors of the innocent.

I glanced at my clock and realised it was 5 a.m, and I was suddenly tired. Pushing the book under my bed, I snuggled down to sleep. I can figure this out in the morning.

"Pheebs." Paige's voice woke me, along with the knocking on the door.

"I'm up." I yawned. I laid in bed for a few seconds. Why was I so tired?

I couldn't think straught. Mornings aren't good for me.

I was dressed and half-way downstairs when I remembered.

The attic, the book, mum ...

I ran back up into my room and pushed my hand under the bed. I felt something. Something big, solid. The book.

It wasn't a dream. The book was there.

Then ...

"What's that?" I spun round, to see Paige in my doorway.

"Nothing." I said automatically. I'm not sure why I didn't show her straight away.

She looked at me for a long time. "It doesn't look like nothing."

OK, she had me there. I couldn't really hide soming that was about a foot in length.

"I ... had a dream last night ... mum was in it, and she told me to go to the attic." I admitted.

"We have an attic?"

"Yes. At the top of those stairs."

"I always thought that was a closet." She shrugged.

"Believe me, that's one big closet. Anyway, I found this book, and read this ... thing."

I opened it, showed her. She read it, her eyes widening every second.

"Did you read this outloud?" She asked me carefully.

"Um ... yes ..."

"That isn't reading Phoebe, that's chanting." Her eyes were wide, a little fearful, and I suddenly felt uneasy.

"So?" I said defiantly.

"This is a book of witchcraft - what have you done?" She looked scared, vunerable, and I realised how young she was.

Paige gets all the attention and sympathy from our sisters - Prue and Piper have always been a little bit close to each other than me, and Paige is the youngest, so they've always kind of looked out for her, let her tag along. Me? Nah. I'm Phoebe, I'll survive on my own. Nowm I see why they want to protect her - although it still hurts they don't want to do the same for me. I'm only three years older. Don't they always say I'm too young to handle this stuff?

"Paige, it'll be OK, I promise." I said.

"Really. How? Grams is dead, we're stuck with creepy "grandad" Sevron, and you're going around reading spells from wiccan books." Tears slowly rolled down her face. What am I supposed to do? I'm not good at stuff like this, that's Piper's role. I'm the sister you come to to do baaaaaad things with.

"I know how you're feeling." I said, putting my arms around her. "But we have to stick together. The power of four. This is our legacy, this is what we have left of mum and grams."

"Phoebe! Paige!" Prue called. "Get down here!"

"Hey, um, is Sevron downstairs?" I asked suddenly.

"No. Why?"

"I kinda locked him in Grams' room last night." I admitted. She grinned at me.

"We're supposed to be driving him out, not keeping him in. And I don't like that he's in Grams' room." She added, sounding suddenly bitter. For such a young kid, she's kinda smart.

"I know. We should lock him in the basement instead. Maybe he'll starve." I smiled. She laughed, still a little tearful.

"We will get through this." I said quietly. "And then we'll be the best witches the world has ever seen."

"Phoebe! Paige!"

"Lets go." I picked up the book.

"What are you doing? You can't take that downstairs. Prue'll kill you!"

"What?"

"Reading spells in the dead of the night? She'll go mad."

"But ... this is our destiny, she can't fight it -"

"PHOEBE, PAIGE GET DOWN HERE NOW!" Prue yelled angrily.

"Maybe I'll wait till after school." I said quickly.

Wow. I got a laugh out of her.

"Come on, before Prue's head explodes." I said, pulling her out of my room.

Witches, huh?

Suddenly, life seems a whole lot more bareable.

Of course, hitting Paula at school that day might have had something to do with it ...