Chosen, A New Chapter 2
Xxx
On a sunny day, young mother Mary Oliver went to the small playground in the park with her nine year old daughter Zoey. Like any other day, she met up with the other young mothers of their neighborhood while their children played in the safe environment. These play dates were the perfect moment for the mothers to exchange the latest gossip.
When they arrived at the play ground, Zoey immediately ran off toward the swings while Mary joined her friends on the benches.
"So have you heard about the Thompsons?" One of the others asked.
"No, why?" Mary asked.
"Their little girl Becca is missing." The other woman said. "She vanished from her school playground."
"That's horrible." Mary said. "And they don't know anything?"
"No, she just disappeared without a trace." The woman said.
"I always said that school was unsafe, that's why we sent our Kevin to private school." One of the more stuck-up women said.
"But for a child to vanish just like that?" another said. "What kind of monster could be responsible?"
Meanwhile Zoey was playing on the swings with the other kids when she saw something moving in the bushes. She walked away from the other children and headed toward the bushes.
"Hello?" Zoey asked.
Something moved in the bushes again, and when Zoey moved closer the saw it was a kitten. A very small gray kitten with a rope tied around its little neck. It looked like it the rope was bothering it, like it was stuck. Zoey felt bad for it and thought it might be hurting, so she kneeled down and crept closer to it, careful not to frighten it.
"Come here, Kitty." Zoey said.
When she reached out for the kitten, a large white hand suddenly reached from the bushes and grabbed hers. Before she had even time to scream, Another hand wrapped around her mouth, silencing her screams and she was pulled into the bushes.
A little while later, Mary reached into her purse and grabbed a juice box for Zoey. She called out her name and looked around for her, but her daughter was nowhere to been seen. The playground was small, so she should be able to see her. With the story of little Becca still fresh in her mind, she panicked and started screaming her daughter.
The other mothers instantly started helping her search while some ran toward their own children and called the police. When Mary looked in the bushes, she found one of Zoey's shoes, along with a gray kitten with a rope around its neck.
Xxx
"What did you want to talk about?" Billie asked as she sat down on her bed.
Billie wondered why Paige had shown up with another whitelighter. Normally it was always good to see her, but Billie knew a visit like this could only mean a few things. And she wasn't sure if she was going to like it. From the look of her face, Paige didn't seem too thrilled herself. If anyone could understand what Billie had been through, it was Paige and her sisters. After all, most of what Billie had done, she had done to them.
"Well, it's a little hard to explain." Paige replied.
"Actually it's not, really." Mikelle, who was leaning against the desk said. "The Elders want you to become a witch again and lead a new generation of good witches."
"What?" Billie asked confused.
"That sums it up pretty good, actually." Paige said surprised. "But there is still more to it."
Paige then began retelling everything Sandra the elder had told her. That now that the Charmed Ones were retired, a new force of good was needed to maintain the balance. She also told her about the murder of professor York, which was definitely demonic, and the new witch she had to find. After Paige had finished telling her everything, Billie wasn't quite sure how to react. She honestly didn't know how she felt about being a witch again.
"I don't understand how the Elders are willing to trust me with this, after everything…" Billie said.
"Billie, what's in the past is in the past." Paige assured her. "We all forgave you a long time ago, you made a mistake."
"But I was almost turned evil completely. I nearly killed you!" Billie replied, wondering how Paige was being so rational about it.
"Oh please, we have all turned evil before." Paige said, brushing it off.
"Most of the times you were influenced by something demonic." Billie said. "I almost did what I did out of free will."
"You were confused and being manipulated." Paige said. "You had just found your sister again after all those years, you lost your parents. That is a lot to handle for anyone in one year."
"Yeah, but..." Billie began.
"No, I don't get where this all coming from, Billie." Paige interrupted her. "I thought we had moved past this, that we had all moved on."
"I know." Billie said softly.
"Are you afraid of what will happen if you become a witch again?" Paige asked. "Afraid that you will make a mistake again?"
Billie wondered if that was what she truly feared. When she thought back on how easily she believed Christy's lies and couldn't see her true intentions, she really was afraid what would happen if she made a mistake like that again. That she would hurt someone she cared about again.
"I just don't want to hurt anyone anymore." Billie said tearfully.
"You won't, Billie." Paige assured her as she placed an arm on her shoulder. "We trust you, we all do. Now you need to trust yourself again."
Billie stood up and hugged Paige while wiping away her tears. She knew Paige was right, along the line she had stopped trusting herself. That is why she had turned away from magic and lived a normal, safe life. she had walked away from her destiny because she was afraid to mess up again. Knowing that Paige, Phoebe and Piper trusted her, made Billie feel better. She had the support of her family, and knew that she would be able to handle this new destiny.
"Okay." Billie said after a while.
"I think you made the right choice." Paige replied with a smile. "I know you can do great things."
"I'll go inform the Elders, so they can grand you your powers back." Mikelle, who had remained quiet all this time, said and disappeared in a column of orbs.
"So what happens now?" Billie asked.
"Now it's time I go visit an old student of mine." Paige said. "After all, no witch can do it all on her own."
Xxx
Twenty-year old former Magic School student Duncan Phillips walked over the campus grounds on while listening to music through his earplugs. The young male witch with short wavy brown hair and hazel eyes stopped at a coffee cart to get a coffee, before heading to class.
After graduating Magic school, Duncan had decided to experience real college life and take a break from magic. It was something his very magical family wasn't very happy with. After all, the Phillips family was one of the oldest and most well-respected magical families around. Their family history dated back all the way to the witch trials, where they formed strong ties with the Warren line and other magical families like the Marks line and the Montana's and Callaway's.
Of course Duncan had always been somewhat of a disappointment to his family. His powers were not nearly as powerful as his older siblings and his grades at Magic School were average at best. It was one of the reasons Duncan had decided to break away from the family traditions and attend a mortal college, just to be away from his family for a change.
"Well, college is something else from magic School, isn't it?" A familiar voice said behind him.
Duncan unplugged his ears and looked behind him. There stood Paige Matthews, his former headmistress of Magic School and favorite teacher ever. He had not seen her since the whole conjuring up lady Godiva thing a few years earlier.
"Ms. Matthews!" Duncan said surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh please, call me Paige." Paige said. "I'm not your teacher anymore and it makes me sound old. Besides, I'm married now."
As they talked they continued to walk down the campus and sat down on a bench so they could talk in private.
"Oh, right. Sorry." Duncan said. "So what are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing." Paige said.
"I needed to get away from my family." Duncan said.
"Right, I remember meeting your parents at parent-teacher night." Paige recalled. "They were not easy people to get along with."
"You don't know the half of it." Duncan said.
"So that's why you enrolled in normal college?" Paige asked. "Just to get away from them?"
"Pretty much." Duncan replied. "But I also wanted to experience a normal life. I grew up in a family where everything revolved around magic. Growing up I wasn't even allowed to play with the mortal neighbor kids. Everything had to be magical."
"So how is college life treating you?" Paige asked.
"It's okay." Duncan said shrugging.
"Just okay?" Paige asked.
"I'm just having a little trouble fitting in." Duncan admitted. "I'm used to magic being everything, it's weird to go without."
"So it's like the reverse world of Harry Potter, instead of getting used to magic, you have to get used to the muggle ways." Paige summed up.
"Pretty much ,yeah." Duncan said laughing.
"So did you hear about what happened to the professor?" Paige asked.
"Yeah, I heard. She was a good teacher." Duncan said. "But wait, it's not a demonic thing, is it? Is that why you're here?"
"It's part of why I'm here." Paige said. "You're the other part."
"What do you mean?" Duncan asked confused.
"You have a great destiny ahead of you." Paige explained. "The Elders chose you to be part of something, a group of witches to fight for good and maintain the balance between good and evil."
"Like the Charmed Ones?" Duncan asked confused.
"Something like that." Paige replied. "Because we have fulfilled our destiny a new force of good is needed. It's your destiny to be a part of it."
"But I'm not that powerful." Duncan objected. "I'm just your average witch. I am the weakest in my family, ask anyone. And my grades at Magic School sucked."
"You have a lot of potential, Duncan." Paige said. "You always had. Conjuring up Lady Godiva from the history books took some serious power."
"I'm not sure I can do this." Duncan replied nervously.
"Only one way to find out." Paige said. "We need your help to stop this demon before he kills someone else. Will you help us?"
Duncan hesitated before he said anything. He had never been much of a fighter. Combat classes were always his worst subjects and he still sometimes struggled to control his powers. Still, having a destiny like this was something a witch dreamed off. To be powerful and help innocents like the Charmed Ones was something not a lot of witches were able to do. His family would be so jealous, maybe this was exactly what he needed to prove himself.
"Sign me up, I guess." Duncan said with a nervous smile.
Xxx
Meanwhile, on the other side of the campus, Violet was pacing around her dorm room, desperately trying to block the horrible images she had seen out of her mind. She could still it as clear as ever, professor York falling to the ground, the pale man with his dark eyes, the entire thing was like a nightmare over and over.
Violet wondered if she had gone crazy. There were no psychological problems running in her family, but maybe the shock of finding out about the murder drove her over the edge. That was probably it, she had gone crazy and now suffered from delusions. It was the only logical explanation there was, right? Or could what she had seen actually be real? Maybe professor York had really been killed by that thing. No, she was probably just crazy.
"Okay, Vi. You really need to calm down." Violet said to herself.
Violet sat down on the bed and attempted to calm herself down. She always had the tendency to go into a ramble, even if it was just in her own mind. She needed to do something, tell somebody, but who could possibly take her seriously?
Violet took a bottle of water and turned on the TV, figuring there was something there to keep her mind off things. After flipping a few channels, she landed on a new report. Apparently, a young girl had gone missing in a local park just hours ago, and the police were investigating if the case was connected to a girl that disappeared two days ago. The new then showed pictures of both the girls.
As terrible and sad as it was, Violet just couldn't deal with it right now and tried to flip the channel again. When her hand touched the remote, she was suddenly pulled into another strange dream.
In a dark place, which felt wet and cold, two young girls were crying. They were locked in a cage and one of them was comforting the other. One of the girl's eyes were blank. Then suddenly the scary pale man appeared and seemed to look right at her.
With a scream, Violet was pulled back to reality. Why was she seeing these horrible things? She looked at the TV again and suddenly recognized the two girls in the pictures, she had just seen them in her weird vision thingy. Except one of the girls appeared to be blind, and that scary man was there. Whatever was going on, the disappearance of the girls and the murder of professor York were connected.
"What is happening to me?" Violet asked.
Xxx
There was a knock on Billie's dorm room and when she opened it, she saw Paige along with a guy Billie's age, probably another student here. He had short brown hair and looked like your average college student, though Billie knew he was probably not. She thought he was kind-of cute, in a dorky kind of way, like the nice guys that were often ignored by girls.
"Billie, I'd like you to meet Duncan." Paige said. "Former Magic school student and witch."
"Hi, nice to meet you." Duncan said.
"Yeah, you too. I'm Billie." Billie said as she shook his hand.
"So you're a witch too?" Duncan asked. "I didn't think there were any others here."
"Apparently even more than just you and me. " Billie said. "But I' technically not a witch right now, we're working on it."
"What?" Duncan asked confused.
"She lost her powers, it's a long story. You guys should talk later." Paige cut in before Billie could answer. "Right now, we need to focus on finding the third witch. The Elders said she had the power of premonition and she might be able to lead us to the demon."
"I have actually never fought a demon before." Duncan said reluctantly.
"Don't worry, it's easy." Billie said with a confident smile.
"Right…" Paige remarked.
"So what are your powers?" Billie asked.
Besides the sisters, Billie had not met many other witches and she was still sort-of fascinated by magic in general. She wished she had been able to visit magic school when it was actually open and had students.
"I'm a conjurer." Duncan said.
He held out his hand and a bunch of pretty flowers appeared in an orange glow.
"Save the parlor tricks for later." Paige said, causing Duncan to lose focus and the flowers fading away into nothingness.
"I have to keep concentrating to keep things real." Duncan explained. "I also have the power of astral projection, but it's still new and kind-of exhausting."
"Cool." Billie said.
Seeing active powers made her miss her own powers a little. Duncan's conjuring looked like a weaker version of Billie's projection power, the very thing that had made her the Ultimate power along with Christy. Considering what it led to, she really didn't want it back and she knew the Elders would never grant her that kind of power again. Her days as the Ultimate powers were definitely done. Besides, her telekinesis had always been her favorite power, and it was great for kicking demon ass. It was the only power she wanted back. She was a strong enough witch with just that.
"Guys, the witch?" Paige asked a little impatient.
"Of course." Billie said.
"We could try summoning her." Duncan suggested. "Like a witch to witch spell?"
"No, if she's too new for her whitelighter to detect her, a spell like that won't work either." Paige said while thinking. "Besides, she doesn't know she's a witch. If we just yank her away, she will be freaked out. We need to win her trust so we can explain what is happening to her."
"Maybe we should focus on the demon instead." Billie said. "There has to be a trail somewhere, right?"
"We don't even know what type of demon we're dealing with yet." Duncan replied. "Let alone how to vanquish it."
"Wait, I got it!" Billie suddenly said. "Paige, remember that spell Phoebe wrote to reveal the evil in an area? Maybe if we tweak it a little, we could let it reveal magical energy."
"That might actually work." Paige said. "Her magical energy is probably still weak, but it even a little should show up with the spell. It would lead us straight to her."
"Nice thinking, Billie." Duncan added.
At that moment, a column of orbs descended down from the ceiling and Mikelle the whitelighter reappeared from talking to the Elders. She seemed surprised to see Duncan there.
"Are you the other witch?" Mikelle asked.
"Yeah, I'm Duncan." Duncan said.
"I'm Mikelle." Mikelle replied. "Billie, I talked to Elders and they told me that all you have to do to restore your full witchyness is chant this spell."
Mikelle handed Billie the spell on a parchment. Billie looked at it with mixed feelings. A little piece of paper with words would give her back her powers, but also a new responsibility and destiny. She looked at Paige, who gave her a supportive nod. Billie unrolled the parchment and started chanting the spell that would change her life once again.
"Hear now the words of the witches,
The secrets we hid in the night.
The oldest of Gods are invoked here,
The great work of Magic is sought.
Power of the witches rise,
Course unseen across the skies,
Return to me what I have lost,
Give me power to fulfill my cause."
Once Billie finished the spell, white orbs started swirling down from the ceiling, surrounding her. As they circled around her, they entered her body, giving her a warm feeling. She could feel her power returning to her, making her a witch once more. To test her power, Billie focused on a book lying on her desk. With a fling of her arm, she send it flying across the room against the wall. Billie looked at her hand and smiled. It felt good to be back.
xxx