fiction, take 2! *passes out*

*yawn* exhausted. fic take 2. the last bit, do yourself a favor and imagine something very gory horror movie. lighting, fire... blood. bodies. yeah. gore, baby. gore.

-----

  Piper and Paige appeared at the park, their unusual arrival masked by the trees around them.
  "You know, this was a lot easier when we just drove everywhere," Piper muttered as she looked around anxiously.
  "But it took forever," Paige reminded her.
  "Yeah, but it was a lot less nerve wracking."
  "Not if Phoebe was driving."
  "Good point. Let's find Darryl."
  They didn't have to look far, as Paige had managed to orb them almost directly behind the crime scene. Yellow police tape seemed to glow in the dark and Piper thought she was going to be sick from just the smell.
  "Darryl?" Paige called out, uncertain if she really wanted to see the crime scene now that she was there.
  "Piper, Paige. Over here," Darryl called out.
  "Where's everyone else?" Piper asked.
  "Sent them for various odd jobs. They'll be back soon."
  "Ah, so you're sneaking us in?" Paige asked knowingly.
  "Something like that. Uh, I don't know how to warn you but-"
  Piper's groan cut him off. "Oh my God," she whispered. She'd wandered off a little bit to get a closer look and now wished she hadn't. There were nine bodies on the ground, and it looked far too much like one of the Wiccan ceremonies she and Phoebe had gone to years ago. The women's clothes lay at their feet, now stained blood red. It was obvious they hadn't stood a chance.
  Paige hurried to Piper's side. "Piper, honey, come here." She wrapped her arms around her sister and held her close, as they looked at the crime scene.
  "I wouldn't have called you if I didn't think this was..." Darryl's voice trailed off.
  "Something demonic did this," Paige agreed. Small clumps of grass were scorched as if a fireball had landed there not long ago.
  "We should go," Piper said. "Before Darryl gets in trouble."
Paige nodded and quickly looked around.
  "It's safe," Darryl assured her.
  They disappeared into the night, wishing they could forget all they'd just seen as easily as they'd left.

----

  He smiled as he watched them disappear. He was lucky the younger one still didn't have any idea how powerful she was, or else she might have sensed him and he wasn't ready for that just yet. No, he had a point to make first.
  But they'd know soon enough how much he wanted them.
  "Soon," he whispered with a smile. With that, he disappeared into the darkness.

-----

  Paige and Piper reappeared in the Manor and seconds later Piper had run to the bathroom. Paige could hear retching as she stormed past looking for Chris.
  When she found him, she nearly exploded. "Why didn't you warn us about that? Do you hear that? That's the sound of Piper getting sick because of that... that massacre! Why didn't you warn us? We shouldn't have seen that. No one should see that!"
  Chris stared at her in disbelief. "You're kidding me, right? You guys just left, leaving me with the baby, who's fine, thanks for asking. You didn't give me a chance to tell you guys anything, let alone warn you."
  "No, you had plenty of time. You chose to pick a fight with me instead of talking to me. You had time when Piper got home, but did you say a damn thing? Noooo. What kind of whitelighter are you, anyway?"
  Chris's eyes narrowed. "I'm your whitelighter and you treat me like a glorified baby-sitter. I told you I had news. You picked a fight with me. So don't blame Piper's freakout on me when you could have prevented it." He began to glow a faint blue and Paige realized he was about to orb away.
  "Don't!"
  "Don't what?"
  "Don't go. I... We need to talk about this. Whoever did that is sick, really sick. And chances are they'll be coming for us sooner or later."
  "Yeah, they will be."
  "Are you two done bickering yet?" Piper asked from the doorway. She crossed her arms and looked at them expectantly.
  "We're done," they answered in unison.
  "Good. One of you two get Phoebe. We need her." I need her, she added silently.
  Paige frowned. "Uh, Piper? She's with Jason, remember? I don't think she's going to want to be interrupted, if you know what I mean."
  "I don't care. You saw those women. You said it yourself; it's only a matter of time before whatever did that comes after us. We're strongest together, and I want her here. Now." Piper glanced up at the ceiling, willing Wyatt to stay asleep. If she had to go up there and see him, she might break down. "Get Phoebe and bring her back here kicking and screaming if you have to."
"Will do." Chris orbed away.
  "Uh, Piper? Are you okay?" Dumb, dumb, dumb, Paige thought. Of course she's not. I'm not, so why should she be?
  Piper forced a smile. "I'm getting there. Its just all that blood. Someone really went out of their way to kill those poor women. And they never even saw it. None of them tried to leave. There had to be more than one demon that did this. That many witches would have stood a chance against one demon, right? I mean, they wouldn't just stand there and wait to die while the others..."
  "Piper. Look at me. It's awful what happened to them. It really is. But freaking out about it won't do any good. We have to figure out who'd want to kill them and why."
  "They were good witches, Paige. That's reason enough to kill them. It's reason enough to kill us."
  "No. We're the Charmed Ones. It's not that easy to kill us. Those witches..."
  "Never stood a chance," Piper muttered bitterly.
  "Not really, no," Paige said softly. "But we'll find out who or what did this and we'll stop them. It's what we do."
  "You know, ever since Leo... left, you've gotten pretty good with these pep talks," Piper said with a shaky smile.
 "Yeah, well, someone had to. Chris stinks with them."
  "I heard that," they heard Chris say before he materialized with Phoebe in tow. A very angry looking Phoebe.
  "Pheebs, hi," Piper started to say before Phoebe cut her off.
  "What's the big emergency? What couldn't wait a few measly hours until sunrise when I could have left without Jason getting all suspicious?"
  "God, Phoebe." Paige glared at her older sister. "It's not like we pulled you away from him for fun."
  "Well it sure seems that way. You don't seem like you're under demonic attack; I don't hear Wyatt crying... Oh, God, its Wyatt isn't it? Something happened to him!" Phoebe began to panic.
  "Wyatt's fine, Phoebe. It's us I'm worried about," Piper snapped.
  "What? Why?"
  "If you'd calm down a second, they might have time to tell you," Chris pointed out.
  Phoebe shot him a dirty look and then sat down on the couch. "I'm listening."
  After taking a shaky breath, Piper filled Phoebe in. Thankfully, Phoebe's attitude problem began to shrink as she realized how upset both her sisters were by this.
  Phoebe turned to Chris. "Any idea who did this?"
  "Finally, someone who asked my opinion!"
  Piper shot him a warning look. "Chris, if you and Paige would stop acting like five year olds, I might ask your opinion a lot more." Then again, I might not, she added silently.
  "Well, any ideas?" Phoebe persisted.
  "Actually, I have one. About a week ago the Elders felt a very powerful evil being surface. Only, for some reason, they couldn't pinpoint any location where it might be. If I had to guess, I'd say that's your killer right there."
  Piper slowly fixed her gaze on Chris. "You're telling me the Elders have been tracking some super powerful, high level evil for a week and they didn't even bother to warn us?"
  Chris paled. He knew enough by now to fear Piper's wrath. Still, lying now wouldn't really help. "Yes."
  "How long have you known?"
  "A week..."
  "A week. Some freakishly powerful evil is wandering around out there and you didn't tell us?!" Piper shrieked.
  "Piper? Honey, we don't want to wake Wyatt up," Phoebe said softly. "Besides, yelling at Leo never did any good, so why should it with Chris?"
  "Hey!"
  Paige rolled her eyes. "You're the one in trouble here. Do you, or the Elders, know anything else about this thing?"
  "Only that it's really powerful."
  "More powerful than us?" Phoebe asked, not really expecting him to say yes.
  "It might be."

----

Days later
  "Please don't do this," she begged as she slowly backed away from him.
  He smiled at her. In another life he might have liked her. She was pretty enough, and she was the only one strong enough to have been able to fight him at all. Not that it did her any good, he was still entirely capable of killing her. "Don't do what?" he asked, liking the way his voice sounded.
  "Don't kill me," she whispered, one solitary tear slipping down her face.
  He looked around at the rest of her coven. A few of them had been witches with power, but most had not. Now they were all dead, just like the ones before. Only one witch remained. "Do you really want to live when they've died for what they believe?"
  "They died because you killed them!" she screamed and then looked horrified.
  "True. But why should I let you live?" he asked, slowly inching his way towards her. He enjoyed this new part of the game. Her fear made this far more fun.
  "I-I don't want to die." Her blue eyes welled with tears and she looked away, waiting for him to take her life as easily as he'd taken those of her coven.
  "Look at me," he commanded. "I'll spare your life if you pass along a little message. Tell the Charmed Ones I'm coming for them. Do you understand?"
  She nodded. "Y-yes."
  He smiled again. "Good." And with that he lunged at her, arms outstretched.
  She screamed and tried to run, only to fall to the ground because she'd slipped on the blood from the nearest witch. "Oh Goddess, oh Goddess," she whimpered.
  "Boo," he said.
  She looked up at him. "You said I could go!"
  He knelt down next to her. "I did. But first I want to know your name."
  She looked into his dark eyes and shivered. It was completely irrational, but for a moment she felt she'd rather die now than tell him her name. And she knew if she refused he'd kill her, no matter what he'd said before.
  "Danielle," she managed to choke out.
  Again he smiled. "Danielle. Very pretty name. Danielle, make sure you spread the word." With that he dissapeared into thin air, leaving her alone. Almost.
  Danielle looked around at her fallen friends, at their blood on her hands, and began to cry. There were monsters out there. She knew before she'd even met him. She knew because she'd run into them. Fought some. But none had ever come this close to killing her. None had ever been brave enough to attack a full coven during one of the most powerful times in the year. And none had ever had the face of an angel as they slaughtered each witch, one by one.
  Danielle knew that her days were numbered. She had to find the Charmed Ones and warn them before he could find them. The only problem was, she didn't know who they were.

------

hurricane imp!

Forecasters were not certain it would strike the United States. However, computer models predicted it would turn toward the Carolinas over the next five days.

Well, crap on a stick. But this brings up my "Impy's very boring tales of Hurricane Hell" so I won't complain too terribly much. [yes, I will.]

So, I think I'll stick with the highlights and not mentions of every hurricane we've managed to avoid. :p

Biggest and first [kink?] was Hugo. Easiest way to tell how local someone is. If you mention "Hugo" and they look blankly, or start rambling about the dude from LoTR/Matrix, chances are they ain't local. :p If they start whinging about hurricane parties and death, destruction, and one hell of a storm surge, then you've got yourself someone who's either local, or at least wants to be [that last one though is freaky.]

Anyway. '89. We lived at the other house and for some reason my parents decided to stay. Not sure why, but they did. Maybe in the hopes that since our house was fairly old and sturdy that it would be able to weather the storm and if we were here, the looting would be kept to a minimum? Dunno. Sent my grandfather off to Virginia [he spent half the year here and half with his wife. Yeah, weird.] and I remember going to the beach the day before and everyone just sort of staring at the waves because they were huge and of course no one was allowed anywhere near the water's edge, let alone the actual ocean. The day of the storm was sunny, actually. Gorgeous if you ignored the fact that by noon, the winds were so high that trashcans were blowing down the street. Big trashcans.

Lalalaaaa. So the storm hits during the night, and at first we were on the first floor, only the wind was so slanted that the rain was coming in under the door. So upstairs we went. all the doors shut, the attic whistling, and you could feel each tree fall. Dad was outside during the eye of the storm, and then all hell broke loose later. I remember that we went weeks without power and bathing was freakishly cold and unpleasant. I remember my aunt coming to visit and it was creepy because she couldn't drive through the neighborhood, so she had to walk with her flashlight and I thought she was a deranged psycho breaking the curfew. We have videos taken for the insurance people, and pictures too.

Next! Very short one. Summer School. Day before my birthday. We were missing school the next day because of the hurricane that was going to supposedly hit us. I've never heard so many kids scream with joy at the same time before. It didn't hit and I think we had to make the day up on a Friday. But my birthday was once more a day of no school. :D

When my grandfather died, I got out of school. [high school 10th grade, I think] I remember being semi excited about missing school, but sad he was gone. Thing is, about that time a hurricane was heading straight for us. :p So the entire city got out of it. :p Unfair much? Yeah. Thing is, the damn hurricane followed us up to Virginia. I'm not kidding. The morning of the service, we were all at breakfast and you couldn't see outside because the rain and wind were so bad. So I attended a funeral at Arlington during a hurricane.

*thinks* There were others, but the next and final one is Floyd. September 15th ish, 99 I think. [not sure, kay?] My parents decided this time to flee the city. Mainly because the city was being evacuated. :p So Mom had to buy cat carriers, only they didn't sell her the grate/fronts, so my dad used panty hose for 4 of them. That didn't work out all that well because the cats freaked out [some of them]. This wasn't helped by the fact that since the whole damn city was fleeing, there was basically a traffic standstill. It took 13 hours to get to someplace fairly close in NC. I remember when we finally left the area by the mall [we spent hours there. not kidding] and were passing a rest stop that night, people were pulled over to the side of the road partying and getting very drunk. They were also very much half naked. You know where Floyd hit? Not Charleston, SC. No, it slammed into NC somewhere. :p The damn thing followed us!

So... those are my stories of woe. I'm hoping to avoid a hurricane by staying put. Only Hugo hit us when we didn't run, and that was because it had targeted SC anyway.

You can wake up now.