Chapter 2: Chapter 2
9:02
Phoebe and Coop kissed passionately on the sofa in the living area of their loft. His lips pressed against hers gently and she ran her fingers through his hair, throwing her leg over his lap so that she straddled him on the couch.
"Should we move this to the bedroom?" Coop breathed, flashing her a seductive grin.
"Definitely." Phoebe replied, biting her lower lip with a coy smile.
Coop lifted her into his arms as Phoebe giggled while he carried her into the bedroom.
Billie sat in the Magic school library, she had been pouring over books for days and was suffering from a sever case of lack of sleep. "There is always evil..." she muttered, turning over the current book in hand, A Future Revealed, "yeah right," Billie grunted, only half to herself before beginning to read...
Good and Evil have been at war with one another since the beginning of time. It is not in either nature for one to accept the other. However, free will only exists if both good and evil a prevalent in the world, thus there must always be some element of each; Refer to the symbolism of the Yin and Yang. Throughout history there has always been evil, however in more recent history, evidence suggests that evil is overpowering good. Examples such as WWII and the Cuban Missile Crisis are only two of many examples of the world being on the brink of certain destruction. This destruction is a product of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Four Horsemen are traditionally named after the powers they represent: War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. It has been foreseen that although these forces are powerful, there are four more powerful than even these. There will be a good force released upon, but not realized by the world. It is said that this force of good is part of the reason the horsemen have not succeeded in the past. Though the horseman are the ultimate end they are governed by an even greater evil. The force of good must over come many evils in order to bring about a time of peace, and though evil will still exist, the balance of power will shift from the hands of evil to the hands of good. It is professed that the offspring of this force of good will bring about the rebirth of the world.
Billie thought to herself, four powerful good beings, could it mean the sisters and her? Hadn't she heard of the Horsemen before? Maybe not, then again, stranger things have happened... but before she could continue reading, and much to her amazement, she was swept up in a swirl of bright white lights.
Billie appeared in the attic of the Manor seconds later looking irritated as she caught sight of Paige standing across the room behind the podium that held the Book of Shadows.
"You could have just called," Billie pursed her lips in displeasure.
"Well that hasn't been working lately, now has it?" Paige replied as she came around to cross the room towards the younger woman.
"What do you want that?" Billie asked sounding as annoyed as ever.
Paige's expression softened slightly, "Billie, can we just, talk? Please?"
Billie crossed her arms over her chest defensively, rolling her eyes, "What do you want to talk about?"
"Well, the attitude for starters," Paige replied sounding slightly annoyed, but when Billie gave no indication of commenting Paige took a calming breath before continuing on, "Last week you stormed out on us during dinner and you haven't been answering your cell phone. I've been worried."
"Yeah, well, don't be," Billie replied.
"Why are you acting like a brat?" Paige snapped loosing her patience, "What have you been doing?"
Billie eyed her, "I've been busy."
"Doing what exactly? You know, I'm still your white lighter and you can always..."
Billie cut her off before Paige could become too emotional, "I know, I've just been doing stuff, you know, and dealing with...stuff."
Paige took a step toward Billie, but she immediately backed away, a small gesture that if Paige admitted it to herself, hurt a bit, and yet she understood, "Billie," she tried again, "I know that you went through hell and back with everything, with Christy, but..."
"It's not Christy okay? It's..." Billie looked down at the book in her hands "...it's this. I've been doing a lot of reading and stuff at Magic School, to, well, to keep my mind busy, and I stumbled across this. I was browsing through it. It prophesies and stuff, a lot of which have came true. You guys, the Charmed Ones, you're in here. It says you guys are the most powerful good witches the world has ever known, and it has been predicted for hundreds of years."
" Okay, so...what have you been doing with that information exactly?" Paige asked, trying to understand where the younger woman was coming from.
"Well" Billie began, grasping at straws as she went "I think that you, Piper, Phoebe, and I are a part of this one."
Paige looked at the article and browsed over it. Then she looked back at Billie, "Are you serious?"
"Well yeah, I mean, why not, right?"
"Because, Phoebe, Piper and I have already fulfilled our destinies, and you're just a kid," Paige reached out to Billie and this time was able to connect as she wrapped a comforting hand around her wrist, "It doesn't work, okay?" Paige tried searching Billie's eyes but she just looked away as tears began to cloud her eyes, her heart swelled and her head swam, she felt like a rug had been ripped out from beneath her but she wasn't exactly sure why.
"I'm not a kid," was all Billie could muster but Paige watched as tears began to cloud her eyes and this time she allowed Paige to wrap her in a comforting embrace.
Paige sighed, "Yeah, you are," she hated seeing Billie like this she also finally felt some relief, like maybe, just maybe, she was getting Billie back, slowly."You're also are my charge," Paige whispered into her ear, "but more than that, you are my family," Billie whimpered, "I don't want to see you go down this path, not again."
"I could have done something different." Billie sniffled, "I could have saved her too."
Piper had just finished dropping Wyatt off at school and Chris at Daycare. She was on the way to the club to make sure set up was well underway for the band playing later that this evening as she ran through the list of things she had to get done before picking up the boys again at four. She decided to go to the herbal store first since it was on the way and she needed some lavender. She turned down a small side street and turned into a gravel parking lot. The place looked a bit run down but they had some of the highest quality and lowest priced ingredients in the city.
Piper threw the car into park and hopped out of the SUV. As she entered the shop a little bell chimed after her. A woman with long silver hair stood behind the counter. "Blessed be," the woman greeted her, "is there anything I can help you with today?"
"I just need some herbs" Piper replied, noticing a man in the back corner of the shop look up from where he was rummaging through a bin, "...and spices" Piper added. "You know, for cooking." Piper smiled at the woman and handed her the list of ingredients she needed to pick up. The woman returned the smile, gave the list a quick glance and nodded before turning her back and disappearing into the shelves.
After about ten minutes, Piper began to grow impatient when the woman hadn't returned. "How long does it take to get a few pesky herbs?" she muttered to herself.
As if on cue, the woman returned and began to ring up Pipers purchases. Piper watched her a she fidgeted nervously, even appearing to shake a little.
The man who had been browsing came up to the counter also. He was holding a large ceremonial knife, Piper glanced over at him. The man noticed and turned his body to look completely at her.
"I love these things," he offered with a smile, "I collect them, although some people seem to think it a bit strange to collect ritualistic knives."
Piper chuckled a little nervously "haha, do they now?"
"Yeah" he replied, "But I'm actually in a hurry, do you mind if I slip in front of you?"
"No go ahead" Piper said, mostly due to the fact that she was already late and another minute wasn't going to kill her.
The woman at the counter looked up at Piper, and then to the man. She hastily rang them both through and began sweeping her shop.
Whatever Piper thought as she placed the herbs along with her purse in the passenger seat before climbing into the drivers side and taking off without even noticing that the man who had purchased the ceremonial knife was still lingering outside.
He watched Piper's car fade from view before returning inside to the shop.
As he entered the shop the tiny woman shook beneath the cotton blouse and long skirt she was wearing, "Leave now" the woman's voice immediately rang out, "I did as you asked."
"And yet, you didn't" the man replied as he took a threatening step towards her. "Now I have to take care of this myself." The man looked at the athame in his hands, grabbed the tiny woman by the shoulder.
"Please," the woman begged as she tried desperately to escape from his hold.
The man smiled, as he stabbed her deep in the belly, "Kind of poetic isn't it?" he asked as he watched the woman woman gasp for air only a moment before shimmering away.
Phoebe sat in her office, she was distracted, just like she had been all day. She didn't feel quite right. Sighing, she looked down at her advice column-
Dear Distracted and Dangerous,
If you can't seem to focus your attention on what needs to be done, try to take your mind off of things for a little bit. Then, go back to your issue. Take some time alone, have a relaxing bath or go for a walk to think about it. If that doesn't help, try confiding in someone you trust or seek help from a medical practitioner.
Phoebe chewed the end of her pen, not feeling very confident writing to someone about how to overcome being distracted from an important issue, when she herself, couldn't even write her advice column without something being on her mind. After a moment, she snatched her phone and dialled Pipers cell. The cell rang several times before jumping into Pipers answering machine, Phoebe frowned as she dialled the manor and then P3 and received no answer at either number. She could feel the panic beginning to rise in her stomach. Despite being a witch for nearly a decade, the fear of something happening to her family never really went away. It's fine, she tried to convince herself, but something told her that things were definitely not fine.
Piper grabbed her cell and was about to call the daycare to inform them she would be about 20 minutes late picking up the boys, when she realized her phone was dead. "Great" she mumbled, "when did that even happen?" she asked herself.
The band was set up doing a sound check, as Piper strode across the room to grab the phone from behind the bar. She picked it up and waited for a dial tone but none came indicating that this phone was dead too. Piper frowned, "Of course it is" she muttered under her breath, noting to call the service provider. Piper returned to her office, "Paige" she yelled. "PAIGE!"
A moment later, bright blue lights engulfed the room as Paige appeared in a flurry of orbs, "Yeah, what is it?" the youngest sister looked concerned.
"Can you pick up the boys from Daycare at 4 and bring them home, I'll be there around 5?"
"Uh sure.." Paige replied seeming a bit confused, "But why couldn't you just call and ask, I thought you were in trouble or something."
"Apparently all the phones are all dead!" Piper replied warily.
"Oh, weird." Paige replied a little uneasily, "Everything okay?"
"Yes, yes," Piper insisted, although she had to admit that Paige was right, it was strange, "now go, I've got lots of work to do and not a lot of time to do it." She said shooing her sister out. Paige shrugged and orbed away.
Piper dropped the bag of ingredients she had purchased from the potion store onto her desk and returned to the main room to continue setting up for the evening event.
As soon as she was gone, the man from the herb shop shimmered in, he picked up the jar with fresh rosemary and replaced it with a similar looking herb. He then took the athame that still had blood on it and mixed around the herbs.
The first seed had been planted.
When Piper got home shortly after 5, Paige was sitting on the couch in the living room playing a board game with Wyatt and tickling Chris's belly. She laughed at her nephews before looking up and noticing Piper leaning in the doorway watching the moment, "Hey, did everything go okay?" Paige asked.
"As well as can be expected" Piper replied giving Wyatt's hair a bit of a ruffle before moving to take Chris from her sister, "Thanks for picking up the boys."
"Oh no problem, that what aunts do, right Wyatt?"
"Yeah." Wyatt said smiling.
"We're just gonna finish our game here and then I'm going to head home for dinner with Henry." Paige called after Piper as she headed into the kitchen balancing Chris in one arm and several bags in the other.
Wyatt watched his mom and then got up and followed her into the kitchen. With baby Chris on her hip and everything else in her other arm Pipers hands were full, but she finally managed to put everything down and begin unpacking and putting things away.
Wyatt entered the room, "What is it Wyatt?" Piper asked, Paige followed Wyatt in just in time to see him put up his shield. First, Chris orbed out of Pipers arms and into Paiges, and then the bag of everything she had just bought was orbed into the trashcan.
Paige looked surprised "What the..."
"Wyatt," Piper said firmly, but Paige could hear the confusion in her older sisters voice, "Why did you just orb things away from mommy?"
Wyatt just stood there with a pouty look on his face. Paige looked at him, "Maybe he knows something we don't?"
"I doubt it" Piper sighed, "He's probably just being a little big of a trouble maker again, aren't cha?"
Wyatt lowered he shield as his mom picked him up, "I know I haven't been spending as much time as I should with you guys, but tomorrow we're going to play together all day. Okay?"
"Kay" Wyatt said with a reluctant smile but he was still eyeing the trash carefully.
The phone rang in Phoebes office, she grabbed it, "Piper? Oh hi Daryl. No, it's a fine time, it's just...never mind. What's up? Anna? Oh no. Yeah I did, just from shopping there, yeah I'll swing by the manor, and meet you there in an hour? Okay. I sure hope so." Great Phoebe thought as she gathered her stuff and left to her car, I hope Piper wasn't right. I hope this wasn't the calm before the storm.
Phoebe entered the Manor. "Hello?" She called.
"In the kitchen." Came Paige's voice. Phoebe's heart skipped a beat at the unexpected voice of her younger sister.
"Paige? Where's Piper?" Phoebe asked trying to keep her mind from running to the worst possible scenario.
"She's just upstairs putting the boys down for a nap," Paige looked up from reading the paper, "Everything okay?"
"I've just been not feeling so well today and I thought..." Piper entered the room halting their conversation, "Piper!" Phoebe sprang towards her older sister.
"Phoebe?" Piper took her in, "What are you doing here? Is everything okay?"
"That's what I said." Paige replied looking between them from her spot at the table.
"Not really," Phoebe frowned, choosing to forego sharing her earlier worries with her sisters for now, "you know that lady who owns the herbs store, she was killed, Daryl just called, he wants us to check it out."
"Oh no, I was just there today." Piper frowned.
"You were?" Both Phoebe and Paige asked.
"Yeah just picking up a few things."
"Coincidence people? I think not" Paige sighed.