Chapter Four: Fifteen Years Later
Prue Halliwell slammed the book in frustration, she had been up all night trying to study for her English exams that she had coming up in two days. She had been cooped in her room for three weeks studying for all of her finals. She couldn't absorb any more information, or else she might explode; stretching her arms over her head she stood up and headed for her bedroom door. As she crossed the hall to the bathroom she heard an explosion coming from the attic. She ran up the stairs and saw her youngest sister Penny lying on the floor, while her brother Chris was laughing at her. He stopped when he saw Prue standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips glaring at him. "What?" He said with a chuckle.
"Oh I'm fine, don't worry about me." Penny said as she stood from off the floor and brushed the dirt off of her pants. Prue walked over to her little sister, who had begun to bottle a potion.
"So what are preparing today, a potion to scold flesh? Prue said playfully as she bumped her sister's hip. Penny just smiled and gave the bottle to Chris.
"No, I'm making an exploding potion for my Potion Making final. Aunt Paige says the best way for a potion to work is if you actually fall back when it explodes in your face."
"Oh." Prue said as she shrugged her shoulders, she looked at Chris then back to her sister. "So what's Mr. Congeniality doing here?" She said as she pointed towards her brother.
"Supervising if you must know, don't you have finals study for?" Chris said as his face became serious.
Prue shrugged him off, "Yeah well I could use a break, being in the same room for three weeks can make a girl go crazy." Penny snorted as she threw a piece of hemlock root in the cauldron. "Okay well I'm starving so see you two later." She kissed her sister's forehead and hit her brother in the arm. "Be careful, you wouldn't want to go flying out of the window now." She shook her head as she left the attic. When she got to the kitchen she saw her other brother Wyatt and sister, Melinda standing over the stove staring at the pot of spaghetti sauce. "What are you guys doing?" Both their heads shot up as they heard their sister Prue speak, who sat on one of the stools at the island.
"Moms making spaghetti; we were just waiting for it to get done." Wyatt said as he walked around the island and sat next to Prue.
"Oh, for a minute there I thought Mel was cooking again." Wyatt snorted as Melinda gave Prue a deadly glare.
"If you must know my cooking is not that bad, in fact Matt said the lasagna I made the other night was better than his moms."
"Wait wasn't he complaining about a stomach ache the same night?" Prue said as she and Wyatt burst out into laughter; Melinda walked out of the kitchen. "Hey Mel come on I was just kidding." Prue tried to say between laughs. She followed Melinda out of the kitchen, but before she could get to her a demon shimmered in. His back was towards Prue as he materialized a fireball in his hand, he was aiming at Melinda. "Hey!" Prue cried as she planted a nice round house kick knocking the demon to the floor. The demon screamed when his fireball hit him in the chest making a small explosion sending Prue flying into the wall.
"Prue! Oh my god, are you okay?" Melinda said as she ran over to her sister's side.
"Yeah, just some bumps and bruises that I won't even feel until tomorrow."
"You sure, I could have Wyatt…" Prue held her hand up, cutting Melinda off.
"I'm fine, now can we just talk about something else please." Prue said as she started to walk towards the kitchen, but stopped when she saw three demons shimmer in. "Hey Mel I got a new topic, it's called run!"
Evan and Junior both were sitting on the couch playing a video game when four demons shimmered in. they all threw fireballs at the boys, but the fireballs missed them and hit the TV instead. "Damn it!" Evan cursed under his breath; he got to his feet and threw his hands out and froze two of the demons. Junior waved his hand and sent the two flying into each other, causing ice chunks to fly across the apartment.
The other demons began to throw fireballs at them, when they were sent hurtling into the dining room table. The boys turned and saw Grace with her hand in the air. "You guys alright?" she asked as she looked at the demons who begun to wake.
"Yeah nice toss by the way" Junior said as he grabbed a fireplace poker and walked towards the demons. He stabbed one of them in the chest and turned to kill the other, but the demon shimmered out before he could. "Damn, I hate it when they do that."
"Well at least we killed some." Evan said. He sat back on the couch and let out a groan, "Hey do you think we could do a spell to fix the TV?" Junior just glared at him while Grace rolled her eyes. "What it was just a thought?"
"Well we have more concerning issues, like why demons just randomly attacked."
"Hello are you new, that's what they do, randomly attack."
"Yeah well I think something is going on, and I'm going to find out, but I need you to take Grace to Magic school so I have one less thing to worry about."
"Henry I'm not twelve okay I can take care of myself, it was just a couple of demons."
Junior turned and looked at his sister, "Yeah well I still think of you as my baby sister okay, and anyways I need you two to go to Magic school so we can figure out why the demons attacked in the first place."
Grace was about to retort a snotty remark when the demon from earlier shimmered in from behind her and grabbed her. Before the boys knew what was happening the demon shimmered out taking Grace with him. "Grace!" Both Junior and Evan cried.
"Hold still." Laura Halliwell said as she sewed the hem of her sister's dress.
"Well you would be fidgeting if you were pregnant and had to pee Niagara Falls." Cassie Halliwell said as she bounced up and down. Laura gave a sigh and cut the thread.
"There you are free to release." She said as Cassie ran by her but before she closed the door, she stuck her tongue out at Laura who rolled her eyes. "Be careful with the dress, don't get anything on it." She put her sewing case back in the closet when her cell phone went off. She grabbed the phone and pressed 'TALK'. "Hello?"
"Laura its Sam, I was wondering if you could help me with my dress?" her little cousin's voice asked from the other end.
"Sure, but can it wait until I'm done with Cassie's, she may be my sister but that doesn't mean I have to tolerate her for much longer."
"I heard that!" Cassie yelled through the bathroom door.
"She's being grouchy again?"
"Worse she had to pee for the millionth time while I was trying to fix her hem." She heard her cousin giggle.
"Okay well just call when you're ready for me, and I promise to go to the bathroom before I come over."
"Ha ha. Okay talk to you later sweetie, love you."
"Love you too." She heard the line go dead and sighed, "You about done in there?"
Cassie slowly opened the door. She walked out and looked at her little sister. She began to take deep breaths. "I think my water broke."
"Oh my god, um okay just sit down I'll call Chad." Laura flipped her phone open and dialed her brother in laws number. After a few rings Chad answered, "Hey Laura what's up?"
"Cassie's water broke. I need you to meet us at Memorial." She flipped the phone shut and helped Cassie to her feet. "Okay sweetie I think it might be better if we teleported." She and Cassie hearted out of the apartment. When they reappeared they were standing in a cave with really bad lighting. "What the hell? How did we get down here?"
Instead of answering Cassie let out a blood curling scream and began to fall to the ground, Laura quickly grabbed a hold of her sister and laid her on the ground. She took her jacket off and laid it under Cassie's head. "What are you doing?" Cassie asked as she began to breathe in and out like she was taught in lamas.
"I'm going to have to deliver the baby here since I can't teleport us to the hospital."
"WHAT!" Cassie cried.
Prue and Melinda ran into the attic where they saw Chris lying on the floor unconscious. "What happened?" Prue asked as she ran to her brother's side.
"Demons, they came out of nowhere. It's a good thing we had potions." Penny said as she cradled her brother's head in her lap.
"Is he okay?" Melinda asked.
"I don't know, I was about to call for Wyatt before you came running in."
"Well I'm here now so move." All of their heads shot up when they heard Wyatt speak. He knelt next to Chris and held his hand over his body, but nothing happened.
"What's wrong, why isn't it working?" Penny asked.
"I don't know, but I can't heal him. He has to wake up on his own."
"Well this is perfect timing for a beauty nap." Prue said as she threw her hands up in frustration.
"Prue. Not now." Wyatt said.
"Fine, but we need to place crystals around the house before we get more visitors."
"Too late" Melinda said pointing towards three demons standing by the doorway.
"Great." Prue muttered. "Uh hey guys this isn't really a good time, but it you come back later we might have snacks."
"Give us the girl." One of the demons said.
"Uh hello, there's like three of us." Prue retorted.
"The eldest" The blonde demon said as he formed a fireball in his hand. "Or else we kill you all."
Prue turned towards her sister, "Mel quick question. Why am I always the one with the cocky mouth?"
"Time to go" Wyatt said as he stood and faced the demons. He threw his hands out and sent the demons flying into the wall. "Melinda take Chris and Prue to Magic school."
"Oh no I'm not going anywhere I can fight Wyatt." Prue said as she stood next to him.
"You have no powers and besides it's you they want so you're going. End of story." Prue was about to respond when she was hit from the side with an energy ball and sent flying into the table of potions.
"Dammit, Melinda" Wyatt cried.
Melinda ran to Prue's side and helped her up, but Prue just shrugged her off. "Prue come on we have to go."
"No take Chris to Magic school, I'll be fine."
"But—."
"But nothing Mel, I'm still your big sister and it would be wise of you to listen to me and not him. Now go!" Melinda was about to protest, but instead she ran to the shelf that their mother kept stocked potions. She grabbed a couple of the grey one's and ran to Chris. She placed a hand on his shoulder and threw the potion at her feet. Smoke surrounded them and they were gone. Prue grabbed a potion vial lying next to her and threw it at one of the demons. As she was about to throw another one, a fireball came flying towards her, but this time she ducked in time. She got back up and killed the last two demons with her remaining potion vials.
"Prue I told you to leave, why the hell don't you ever listen to me." Wyatt said as he sent his demon flying into Aunt Pearl's couch.
"What and miss out on this, I don't think so." She said as she planted a round house kick on the demon Wyatt threw. "Besides, I can take care of myself. I don't need a constant bodyguard."
"Yeah well mom's gonna kill me if anything happens to you. Duck!" he cried an energy ball was flying towards her. Wyatt's shield came up causing the energy ball to fly back at the demon. He screamed as he burst into flames. Wyatt turned to Prue and held his hand out. She rolled her eyes and took it. "See what I mean about dangerous."
"Hey I don't wanna hear it. I vanquished three demons without any active powers thank you." She said sticking her tongue out at him.
"You know being cocky isn't going to help your situation." Prue just grinned, but it faded as she began to look around the attic. "So what do you say we place some crystals now?"
"Sure, but Wyatt we've got a problem."
"What?"
"Penny's gone."
The woman stood in front of the two unconscious bodies; she smiled to herself as she thought it would be like to have all the power, enough to destroy the whole Warren line and to become ruler of the underworld once again. "Alistair, bring me the girl." She said in a low hiss.
"Yes my queen." The demon said as he shimmered out, a second later he came back with a brunette girl struggling to get free.
"Ah Morgan, how are you feeling today?"
"Fine your majesty." The young girl replied she looked at the floor.
"Why do you look down, I'm not going to hurt you, but I do think that you are ready." The woman then turned towards her alter and grabbed a potion vial. She walked over to the girl and lifted her chin with a finger. "It's time that you become more powerful than either of us could have imagined." She looked at Alistair and nodded. He grabbed the girl and led them out of the room. "Oh and Alistair, make sure no one goes near her this time."
"Yes ma'am." The two left the room leaving the woman alone, she walked over to her alter and began adding ingredients to the cauldron when two demons came running into the room. "This had better be good or else I'm going to make you pay, slowly." She said without looking at them.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but it's the witches they're here and the eldest is about to have the baby."
The woman smiled as she turned towards the two. "Excellent, now go, bring me back the child and the other, the mother can die for all I care." The demons nodded and shimmered away, "It's finally falling into place." She laughed as she stirred the potion.