Chapter twenty-five:
Chris carefully laid his unconscious cousin down on the ground and slipped his sweatshirt under her head to serve as a pillow. Whatever Prue had seen had obviously shocked her, plus after all the fighting she was wiped out which must have caused her to faint. Sean immediately rushed over after he saw that Prue had passed out. "What happened?" He asked Chris clearly concerned. "She had a vision, she said it was about Leo, and then she fainted." Chris answered. Sean merely nodded and then started to try and wake Prue.
"Prue, it's Sean. Please wake up" he begged her. Hearing his voice, She eventually began to come to. "Sean, Chris, what happened?" She asked clearly confused. "You fainted." Chris told her. "After you had a vision." Sean added. "A vision?" She questioned before it started to come back to her. "Oh no…" She stammered, not sure how she was going to tell Chris what she had seen, as she was pretty sure her vision had been of the past.
Prue's hesitation told Chris that something was very wrong. "You said it was about Leo." He said. "What was it you saw?" Prue did not know how to answer her cousin's question. "I'm not sure Chris. But I think… that Leo is…dead." Chris was speechless, and totally stunned. He could do nothing but stare at his cousin hoping he had heard her wrong.
Since Chris was two shell-shocked to ask anymore questions, Sean did so instead. "What?" he asked his girlfriend. "What exactly did you see, and are you sure that it has already happened?" Tears were silently falling down her cheeks. She could not take anymore loss, and she could not bear the idea of watching Chris having to grieve his father. Plus, although she did not know her uncle too well growing up, since they had been in hiding she had become used of him being there, taking care of them. Especially since Chris had been taken prisoner.
Finally getting her bearings she began to explain her vision to Chris and Sean. "The premonition it was kind of fuzzy, but I am pretty sure it was of the past. Usually I can definitely tell but my powers have been a little out of whack lately. Anyway, I saw Leo, along with about ten other elders, performing what looked like some kind of ritual in a forest somewhere."
Chris finally having gotten himself together, asked his cousin, "What kind of ritual?" "I'm not sure." she answered. "But it seemed to bring forth some kind of urn, and well when the urn appeared, they were attacked, by dozens of Wyatt's servants. It seemed as if the demons were after the urn. In the vision, the demons threw some kind of potion that seemed to disable the elders' powers, including Leo's and well, then they massacred them. Amidst the fighting though, one of the elders broke the urn, and some strange dusty mist dissipated in the air. The rest was just flashes of all those elders lying on the forest floor… dead." "Leo too?" Chris asked, even though he knew the answer. She could only nod.
Prue could not judge her cousin's reaction in the least. Chris wore a completely blank stare, as if he had no idea how to feel. "I'm going up there." Chris told them. "I have to find out what has happened." he finished before orbing out, leaving Prue and Sean together. Prue looked over to the other side of the gymnasium where she could tell Brian was in really, bad shape. Without being healed, he would not make it. She simply did not know how to tell her friends that Leo would not be coming.
While Prue had been informing Chris and Sean about her vision, Danielle, Bridget and Brittany were trying desperately to make Brian comfortable, and stop the bleeding he had coming from his shoulder, where he had been struck by the energy ball.. Although Bridget kept telling her sister that everything was going to be okay her and Danielle knew better. Brian not only had a serious head injury, but clearly internal injuries as well. And Leo had not shown up yet and they had been calling for almost an hour, starting back at P3.
Danielle motioned to Bridget that they needed to talk. "Leo isn't coming, we need to get Brian to the hospital." Bridget nodded in agreement, before taking her little sister into her arms so Brian and Danielle could talk. "I'm taking you to the hospital." She told him, and she was ready to teleport him right then and there, but he took his hand from her before struggling to speak. "No, you can't, you could be captured, the police know you are a witch. Besides out in the open, Wyatt could use me to lure the others out of hiding. I cannot not risk losing my sisters, or losing you." he told her. His voice was weak, but adamant. Tears began to stream down her face, "But… you're hurt you need medical help. And I can't lose you either. I… I…" her sentenced trailed off as she could no longer hold in her hysteria.
"Shh…" he whispered wiping away her tears. "It doesn't matter anyway, there isn't anything doctors would be able to do for me. I can feel it, It's like I'm slipping away." He could tell that he was dying and he knew that the only chance he had at all was for Leo to show up and heal him, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen. "You don't know that." Danielle insisted, "the hospital still may be able to help." Brian shook his head. "No." he answered her, "It is too late and I won't put you at risk." Danielle could only put her head down on Brian's chest and cry as he held her.
Bridget, having heard the end of the exchange was not ready to give up. "Brian you need to go to the hospital, we can't lose you." Brittany nodded in agreement. She may have only been twelve but she had seen enough to know she was losing her brother, even if she did not want to accept it. "No." He insisted to his sisters. "Look I wish it were different, I wish so many things were different, but this is how it is. I'm hurt, badly and I won't put you all at risk just to die in some hospital. Leo is my only chance now." He asserted, clearly he was getting weaker, but he somehow managed to continue. "Bridge, Brit you know I love you, and I will always look at for you, but I need you two to take care of one another now. Be strong, things will eventually work out." His sisters simply melted in his arms as Danielle looked on.
By that time Prue was coming over to approach the group to give them the news about Leo. "Hey." Was all she could say to her friends, knowing how stupid it must have sounded with everything that was going on. "Any word on Leo?" Bridget asked her closest friend with desperation. "Yeah uh…. We need to talk." Prue answered. Bridget could tell simply by the tone of Prue's voice that the news wasn't good. Bridget motioned to her little sister to come with her and Prue to give her brother and Danielle some time alone. It was so obvious to her how those two felt about each other.
Danielle inched over to the man she loved trying to get a hold of herself, but her tears were uncontrollable. Seeing that Brian was trying to talk again, she urged him to rest, to hold on until Leo would show up. He was persistent though. "No… Before I die, I need…I need to tell you that I have", he paused for a second coughing, "I've fallen in love with you." He finished. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner it is just that…" His voiced trailed off. He had no more strength left. "I love you too" She choked out, before leaning in to kiss him. The passion between them was ever so intense in their first and last kiss. It did not last long enough though as Danielle felt Brian's lips go limp under hers. He was gone. The pain she felt at the lost was so incredibly intense that she could not control herself. "No…No…No" she repeatedly screamed out in agony. "This can't be happening." She felt as if the world was caving in around her as she folded herself into a fetal position crying hysterically.
Seeing Danielle's reaction Prue, and the Harley sisters knew that Brian was gone. Bridget wrapped her arms around her little sister as if holding on for dear life. Prue looked on in disbelief as tears rolled down her cheeks. Sean came over to try to comfort her, although nothing could really be done. She slowly turned around to face her boyfriend and whispered a barely audible "Why?" Tragedy had been thrown in her face yet again. Two more people she loved, her uncle whom she was finally getting to know and care for, and her dear friend Brian, who was like a brother to her, were both gone. All she could say was why, and Sean had no answer for her question.