Lost

My cousin and I found ourselves relaxing in the sun room of our ancestral home in San Francisco. Every week it seems like we are constantly battling evil from the underworld and it is quite annoying. While sitting on the couch, I have my homework laid out on the coffee table since I am still in high school; though, it is my last year. I wanted to make sure I keep my 4.0 average that I’ve had since my freshman year. It is a difficult feat since I apparently struggle to balance my duties as a witch and as an ordinary eighteen-year-old student with a crush on her whitelighter.

It was only a few years ago that I found out I was a witch. My power manifested when I felt very frustrated and angry when I saw other kids were picking on my older cousin just because he studied a lot like the rest of the Halliwell family. I had gotten so offended that I stomped over towards the girl who was laughing while others tried to use my family member for his intelligence. As I raised my hands to push her, she flew into the wall behind her. At the time, I had no idea what had happened or if there was anything wrong with me. It was a confusing time for me. I was lucky that my father and uncle took the time to teach me about our family’s legacy and began my training shortly after hearing what had happened.

Being part of the Charmed Ones legacy isn’t easy, but it has become my cousins and my responsibility to protect the innocent. One of my cousins is able to freeze time while the other has the ability to have premonition. I, on the other hand, have the power of telekinesis. Two of us have active powers that are controlled through emotions. The other… well, all she does is touch an object or a person and she receives a vision. It has taken us a large amount of time to learn to control our powers. I believe we have succeeded for the most part due to our family and the whitelighter, who is our guardian angel basically.

“Pheobe! Daniel!” Melinda yelled from her room that is upstairs. Her footsteps are quick as she runs and stands at the top of the stairs. Her eyes first glance at us before they peer over towards the middle of the room where someone shimmers into the room which is a demon’s ability. Daniel and I stand up immediately getting ready to attack the intruder that means to do us harm. Once Mel joins us in the room, she runs up next to me. My only male cousin freezes the individual where they stand. Mel runs and gives a high kick to the person in the stomach which makes the being unfreeze and grabs onto her ankle before tossing her aside into a wall. I then hold my right hand up and with my index and middle fingers together, I motioned him to be pushed away and yet he does not budge from his spot.

“You’re too weak for me witches. You won’t be able to defeat me like your grandmothers had defeated my father. I will avenge him!” As he laughs, he strikes like a snake and grabs me by the throat before also throwing me into a wall. I hear the crash prior to feeling it and slide down the structure with shards of mirror surrounding me. With my gaze blurry from the pain, I watched as Daniel throws a knife at the demon. The man shimmers out of our home before the knife could hit him. We have no idea where he went off to nor do we care at the moment. The back of my head is throbbing quite badly. My hand reaches the back of my head, tenderly touching it, I winced immediately trying to keep the pain to myself as my vision slightly blurs again.

“Jacob!” I hear my cousin, Daniel, call out to the empty air. Soon enough, there are blue and white orbs circling around in the middle of the room before a young man materializes. Through my blurry vision, I see our whitelighter run over to me. His hands lay just above the wound and there is warmth. A warmth full of love and healing. Once the wound finally heals up all the way, I place my hand where the blood was coming from and give it a gentle rub. I’m still not used to that.

“Are you okay?” My green eyes glance up at Jacob’s ocean blue orbs. They are so full of concern, but now isn’t the time to gawk at the man who is a year older than me. He’s technically a few hundred years older since the Elders offered his position to him when he died many years ago. Due to all the good deeds one does in their life by going above and beyond, people can become a witch’s guide and healer.

“Yeah, I’m alright. I don’t think I will ever get used to that.” I hear my other cousin limp over towards us after I slowly sit up. We both have taken a beating from the demon.

“I don’t think any of us will get used to it. It’s definitely a downside to being a Charmed Ones family member. We are practically attacked every week.” I watch as Jacob walks over to Melinda, my gaze never leaving his form. It is a short time for me to really observe his features. He has brown hair that is dark but not as dark as my own. His skin is white but has a slight tan to it. Very handsome indeed. Observing his movements, I see his hands hover over Mel’s ankle and a golden glow comes from them.

“After you’re both healed up, we should go to the attic to look through the Book of Shadows. We need to find out who that was so we can vanquish that demon or warlock.” Daniel brought my attention back to reality with his authoritative words. Being distracted is not a good thing. “And one of us should scry for him. He could be anywhere in the city.” My cousin taking over as leader makes sense since he is the oldest while I’m the youngest of us therefore he has been at this business for longer. Finally standing back up after sitting on the floor, I follow his lead with the other two in tow.

This ancestral home has been in the family for many generations including reincarnations. There is something dangerous trapped under our basement. Our house sits on the nexus which when drawn on a map, is in the middle of a pentagram. Because of that, a lot of magical beings are drawn to the Victorian house including the Woogeyman. If ever free, it spreads evil by turning those who are good. It even happened to my great aunt Phoebe, who I am named after. Due to this sentient demon, every member of the family has lived in this house or close to it. The attic though, is basically where all the magic happens. It is basically our base where we make potions, try to lure evil beings to vanquish them. Most importantly, it is where we keep the Book of Shadows, like the witches before us. And it is the reason we are going to the attic now.

Out of the whole old Victorian home, the attic is the most cluttered. Every time I come up here, the mess surprises me. We keep saying we will clean it up but we never get the chance to with all the attacks that happen. It doesn’t help that those who mean to kill us keep destroying furniture. It does get costly to have certain antiques repaired all the time. There are multiple chairs sitting up here and a couple of old rugs. The stained-glass window shows the age of our home. In a way, I can’t help but appreciate the different generation of Halliwell’s stored objects that sit in this old dusty room. Everything is our history and in a lot of ways they can be important.

Melinda walks over towards the book to look for who the person was. The more information we have on him, the more we are able to use to our advantage. My other cousin works on a generic vanquishing potion that works on most lower-level demons and warlocks. I, on the other hand will be working on scrying for the man. Sadly, it will be a difficult feat since we don’t have anything of his nor his DNA. Regardless of what I think, I grab a map of California and a crystal with a string tied to it. With the objects in my hands, I walked over to an empty coffee table and chair before laying the folded laminated object flat out on the table. Finally, dangling the Amythest over the map, I let it swing around in a circular motion. Scrying takes a lot of patience sometimes. While scrying for the person, I hear pages being flipped and some clinking along with liquid getting poured into a big bowl. My green eyes glance up to see Jacob pacing around while rubbing his hands together.

“Jacob, come here and check this out.” When I heard Melinda call for our whitelighter to get his attention, I turned mine to my cousin as well. Soon enough, Jake is standing next to Mel. My brows furrow wondering what it is they are focusing on since I was doing a mindless task. “I couldn’t find any information on the man. He doesn’t seem to even be in the book. But I did find someone who looks similar to him. Demon of Illusion. The man mentioned a father that was vanquished by our grandmothers. It may be possible that he is a half-demon.”

“It is still very little information. We don’t know what his powers are except shimmering in and out of places. Until there is more knowledge on this half-demon, you all should stay here. I will check with the Elders and see what I can find out.” Jacob orbs out of the attic to wherever those beings are located.

“Are we really going to wait for more information? The demon of illusion’s son could harm innocents while we sit like waiting ducks.” I personally could not just sit around and do nothing; it is my duty to save innocent human beings and I will not let the demon spread his evil in my city.

“We have to. We can’t fight the demon blindly. Like us, he could have inherited powers from his father and we don’t know which those are quite yet.” Just from the look he is giving me, it is clear that for once Daniel wants me to not just jump into action like I am prone to do. Apparently, it is a trait that I have inherited from Prue, a great aunt who died back in the year 2001. I actually inherited my power, telekinesis from her as well. Though, my grandmother was Piper and she had the power to freeze time during the time of the infamous Charmed Ones.

“The potion is almost done.” Daniel informs us just as there is a big boom sound; like something exploding. It seems everything is happening at once since the crystal also landed on a spot on the map with a sudden pull.