Post by StoryGirl83 on Jan 3, 2009 23:16:36 GMT -5
Chapter Forty-Two – Not a Creature Was Stirring
Future, Saturday May 29, 2027
The courtyard was filled with people, but the first thing Chris noticed was that just as with every other random location on earth he had chosen, no one seemed to move. He’d been to half a dozen randomly selected locations just to further test his theory. No one moved. Two children off to the side played catch with a football. The football was suspended in mid air. Nearby a man was drinking from an open bottle of wine. A stream of liquid was frozen still between the bottle and his mouth. Clearly this was bad, whatever it was.
He inhaled a deep breath and chose his next location. After what he’d seen over the last hour or so, he was afraid he knew what he would see and this time he was going where he knew there would be magical beings.
In blue-white orbs, Chris disappeared and reappeared Up There, in what was oft called elderland. At first he was surprised to see no one, but then he noticed something. He walked over to a pillar that held up nothing and looked down. There at the base of the pillar, a drawing pad in hand, was a now familiar face. Kevin Sheppard was as unique here as he was. While Chris was half elder, half witch; Kevin was one hundred percent both, but it didn’t seem to affect him any. Just as every other person Chris had run into, Kevin didn’t appear to move. Chris smiled as he looked at the partially completed drawing. Apparently Kevin hadn’t given up on his witch powers just because he’d become an elder.
Chris leaned against the pillar and contemplated his next move. The hardest was yet to come and he had been avoiding it. He knew that he had to check in with his family. He didn’t expect to find anything new, but he needed to know. Mom will be at The Manor. I’ll check there first. The Manor was the name of Piper’s upscale restaurant that had a few months ago celebrated twenty years.
Chris looked back at Kevin, one of the few elders he trusted, especially after what had been done to his cousin, Hank, on the same day that a party was held at The Manor to celebrate its twenty years. Hank had a bad scare when several elders had taken him prisoner to use as a guinea pig. Their tests had failed and Hank had been determined to never let them get their hands on him again. He’d been studying his whitelighter powers with Leo’s help for months before that, but ever since he had refused to take a break from training. Chris couldn’t say that he blamed his cousin. Kevin had not been involved in what had happened. In fact, he had been trying to help them at the time Hank had been taken.
Chris closed his eyes and orbed into The Manor foyer. At this point he no longer cared if anyone was there. He sincerely doubted they were moving. He paused at the hostess booth, usually occupied by Drinka Deguilio. Drinka was no stranger to their magical ways. She had her own magic, Gypsy magic. He couldn’t count the times Drinka had covered for him or his mom when something magical came up. Drinka wasn’t at the booth, but there were people in the foyer waiting to be seated, so he figured she was in the dining room seating someone.
He’d taken only a few steps into the dining room when he spotted the flamboyant Drinka frozen in the act of leading a couple to their seats. He recognized them as regulars who came every Saturday night to escape their teenagers.
He continued his journey through the busy dining room pausing when he nearly ran into Emily Colson, a young waitress that had been hired a week or so before Chris had started working there. Like Drinka, she knew their secret, but Emily had found out when Chris had orbed her out of the way of falling knives. She had been freaked out, but that had been nothing compared to her reactions later when she came over demanding an answer to what had happened to her. In the end she had taken it well and now found it amusing to explain away Chris’ absences from work to those not in the know.
Chris stepped around Emily and continued his treck toward the kitchen. By now he was sure what he would find when he pushed open those doors, but it didn’t make him and less worried when he pushed them out of his way and saw his mom standing by the stove with Callie Ranard, her assistant.
He walked over to her and was struck by the fear that filled him at the sight of his witch mother who could free time actually frozen in time by whatever caused this. He’d never heard of anything that could do that.
The only thing that came to mind at all was mention of the Angels of Destiny, but even they had never frozen his mom. Considering how much they had frozen, he didn’t doubt that they could, they just hadn’t.
On the other hand both Angels had revealed both their presense and their mission within minutes of freezing things, so it seemed unlikely that they were behind this. Time had been frozen for about a day and he’d been back for over an hour, plenty of time to reveal themselves. It had to be something else.
An idea came to Chris’ mind and he left the room to enter his mom’s office. He sat down at her desk and pulled out a sheet of paper from the printer. He grabbed a pen and started writing.
Dear Mom,
While Wyatt and I were in the middle of researching a demon Pat brought to my attention, a strange thing happened. Wyatt disappeared. Concerned I followed him and found myself in the past, again. You know what occurred there. You know better than I for you know how Wyatt fared and as I write this I don’t yet know this and I can’t ask you.
Something very strange has occurred. Nothing has moved since I left, probably since Wyatt left, but I didn’t notice anything odd then because I could move and was more concerned with my brother than checking the clock.
Now, I have returned to our time without him and though I am concerned all the more, I realize I cannot return else we would have a cycle of the two of us trying to return to our time and that seems a ludicrous choice to pick. I am already here, so here I should stay. It’s just difficult to quash the desire to go back and help.
I am writing this instead of going directly to you because something even odder has happened. I was in the past for almost a day. I left our time in mid-afternoon and when I left the past it was midmorning. However, when I returned it was still mid-afternoon. I considered that perhaps the time between the two was slightly scewed or perhaps it was just off lighting for that time of day, but the clock confirmed not only that it was indeed mid-afternoon, but it was still the day I had left. No time had passed. I have been here well over an hour and still no time has passed. Not only that, I have seen no indication that anyone other than myself has moved. I can only hope this is somehow connected to Wyatt still being gone and the method used to return him here. If that is so, then it concerns me a great deal as I have never seen him display that kind of power and makes me wonder why I am unaffected.
I am writing this because I have faith everyone else will start moving again at some point, for the other option is unbearable, and want to let you know I am back safely. If you get this before Wyatt returns, perhaps you can tell me how he returns so I can quit worrying about him.I love you, Mom.
Chris
Chris folded his letter and replaced the pen before leaving the room. Faced once more with his mother frozen in time, he grimaced. He took the folded letter and folded it even smaller before he slid it into his mom’s hand hidden from the view of Callie and the others in the room who didn’t know about magic. He bent his head and placed a kiss on his mom’s warm cheek. That her cheek was warm made him smile.
Though he had his answer Chris wanted more, so he orbed out, chuckling as he realized he just orbed out in front of people who didn’t know about magic. It was something he would never have done under normal circumstances.
He reappeared across town in his Aunt Paige and Uncle Henry’s living room. The sight that greeted him was surprising. His dad sat on the couch his eyes on the middle of the room. His cousin, Hank, stood there in the middle of the room with his hand held out, concentration lining his face. In front of him a half dozen disks floating in the air. Chris had a pretty good idea that they’d been there a while even before everything quit moving.
Ever since magic had reappeared it had been increasingly evident that two of his cousins either hadn’t come into their witch powers or didn’t have any. Neither Hank nor Aunt Phoebe’s Hope could cast spells and neither showed any signs of witch powers. Where they differed was that Hank had his whitelighter powers and Hope had no cupid ones.
Other than no one moving everyone seemed fine, so Chris sank down onto the couch next to his immobile father. He had to decide what to do next. Wyatt was still in the past and Chris didn’t dare risk returning to the past. He had to trust his parents and aunts to get his brother home.
Meanwhile electronics didn’t seem to be working, so researching the demon they were hunting could prove difficult. He still had the hand written notes. He wasn’t sure how much more he could glean from them, but it was more than he was doing at present and he needed to do something. He needed a distraction.
His plans decided Chris rose from the couch and orbed back to his apartment.