Post by StoryGirl83 on Aug 27, 2008 15:27:11 GMT -5
Chapter Two - Magical Pillowfights and Brotherly Concern
Several minutes later the boys were still in the attic. Chris was standing by the stained glass window, which was opened a crack, looking out onto the street. Wyatt was walking away from a shelf where he had just placed the empty vial. The book was back on the podium, but it was closed.
Chris turned to face Wyatt. “Aunt Phoebe didn’t write that spell.”
“Yes, she did.” Wyatt walked over to the book. He opened the book and started looking for the page, again.
“She wrote a spell that calls on your powers. Right.”
“Oh that,” Wyatt shrugged. “I changed that part. She wrote the rest. It worked didn’t it?”
Chris smiled and nodded. “Yes, it worked. Thank you.”
Wyatt looked up from the book, a confused look on his face. “Hey, Chris. When I was looking through the book earlier, did you use telekinesis?”
Chris looked up with an odd look on his face. “And what else would I have used? It’s not like I have a huge arsenal of powers like the almighty twice blessed.”
“Who cares about that twice blessed stuff?” Wyatt asked looking at Chris. “I haven’t been able to use most of that stuff in over twenty years. Now, you use yours like it’s no big deal, like it’s no surprise.”
Chris’ full attention was now on Wyatt. “What are you talking about? You orbed us here. That’s magic.”
Wyatt shrugged. “My whitelighter abilities are all that works. Or they were.”
Chris frowned and waved his hand in the direction of the book. “What about the spell, the potions? Those aren’t whitelighter abilities.”
“I don’t know, but spells and potions didn’t disappear. Witches, warlocks, demons. None of them have their powers. Or they didn’t yesterday.”
Chris looked around the room and waved his hand sending a pillow at his brother. Wyatt reacted without thinking and the pillow disappeared in blue-white orbs. It reappeared, headed straight for Chris. Chris sent the pillow back at Wyatt with another wave of his hand. This time Wyatt was too shocked to react and the pillow hit him in the stomach. Both brothers watched it as it hit the ground. Then, they looked up at each other.
“Looks like I’m not the only one who has use of his powers,” Chris commented in a monotone.
Wyatt picked up the pillow and looked at it. “I orbed it. I didn’t even say a word, but I orbed it.” Wyatt looked up at Chris. “Aunt Paige has to say something in order to orb them.”
“Aunt Paige isn’t twice blessed, now is she?” Chris asked dryly.
Wyatt chuckled a little as he looked down at the pillow.
“So when was the last time you saw Mom?”
Wyatt looked at him confused. “Last Monday when we came home for dinner, same as you. Don’t you remember?”
Chris sighed. “I’m afraid my memory is a bit jumbled at the moment.”
“Jumbled? Exactly what do you remember?”
“My name. You. Our parents. Our aunts.”
“No one else?”
Chris rolled his eyes. “Well, I remember Grandpa, Darryl Morris, an Inspector Sheridan, my fifth grade teacher, Miss Thomas, Kali, her mom, and a whole bunch of people that have little baring on the situation.”
“Inspector who?”
Chris shook his head. “It’s not really important.”
“How did Miss Thomas beat out Kali?”
Chris shrugged it off. “Just listed people as they came to my mind.”
“So do you remember that you have a dentist appointment next week?”
“No,” Chris told him with a slight shake of his head. “My memories of the last year and a half are very clear and none of them include anything that happened in the present.”
Wyatt’s eyes widened and then he frowned. “So if you can’t remember now, but you remember living during that time, what does that mean?”
“It means that this conversation is over.” Chris started walking toward the door.
Wyatt shook his head and followed him, grabbing him by the shoulder and turned him around. “This conversation is not over, Chris. I want some sort of explanation.”
Chris sighed and looked back across the room at the Book of Shadows. “You know how you said that explanation prior to the spell almost sounded like it was written for me?”
Wyatt nodded and waited for Chris to continue.
“Well, it was. It said, ‘To Save Chris’ and that is exactly why it was written. It was written to save me.”
“But that’s not possible,” Wyatt protested. “It has to have been there for years and you just got hurt today.”
Chris shook his head and walked back over to the book. He turned several pages and when he found the right one he pointed to a point on the page. “To Save Chris. It says right there what it’s purpose is. I was in the past, at a time when Dad was still an elder. I’m why Dad was an elder. I almost caused Mom and Dad to break up for good. I made such a mess of things.”
“What on earth where you doing there?”
Chris eyes slid shut for a moment before he answered. “Like it says, I was trying to save someone. That was all that mattered. I didn’t even matter. When I had a choice between living or . . . there was no choice. Not really. I did what I went there to do. And then I died, because I was stabbed with that enchanted blade and no one could heal me. I guess when I died I came back to my own time and merged with myself. My mind is trying to figure out two sets of memories and that’s why my memories are such a mess.”
Chris looks down at the page. “I guess Aunt Phoebe felt guilty or something. She, along with Mom and Aunt Paige were under a spell when it happened. She must have written that spell because of that. She had no way knowing I would end up back here.”
Chris grinned and looked at his older brother. “Thanks for not paying attention to me. Thanks for looking in the book even when I tried to stop you. I didn’t think something like that would be in there.”
Wyatt laughed at that. “I think that’s gotta be the first time I have ever heard you thank me for ignoring you.”
“Well, don’t get use to it, because it’s not going to happen again.”
Wyatt shrugged. “So . . . thanks to this you have the day off and I did anyway, so what do you want to do? I didn’t have plans.”
Chris thought about it for a moment. “I want to see Mom.”
Chris headed for the door and Wyatt followed close behind. “Do you even know where you are going?”
Chris stopped and looked at Wyatt. “Downstairs?”
Wyatt shook his head.
“I guess not. Where is she?”
Wyatt watched his brother amused. “She’ll be at her restaurant. Do you know where that is or do you want me to orb us there?”
Chris shook his head. He glanced in the direction of the windows. “Actually let’s walk. It’s been a while since I got to slow down and appreciate what was going on around me.” Chris realized that he didn’t know where they were going and looked over at Wyatt. “Is it a long walk?”
Wyatt burst out laughing at this and nodded. “Yeah. How about we compromise and I drive?”
“Drive what? Isn’t your car at the apartment?”
Wyatt grinned sheepishly. “Yeah, it is. We can drive Mom’s van. She usually leaves it here when she’s at the restaurant.”
Chris raised his eyebrows and gave his brother a look. “Let me get this straight, you want to steal Mom’s van.”
“Not steal. Borrow. She is our mom. Besides she told me where the key was just in case I wanted to borrow the van, so she’s okay with it. Why should you have a problem with it?”
Chris threw up his hands laughing. “I give up. We will drive Mom’s van. You get the keys and I’ll meet you out front.”
Wyatt left the attic as soon as Chris said this, but Chris lingered. He looked around the room for a moment and then his eyes came to rest on a corner of the room cattycorner to the door. In his mind’s eye he could still see twenty-one month old Wyatt in his playpen. A smile twitched on his lips.
“It was worth it, Wy. Even that.”
Chris turned around and walked out of the door.