Charmed Ones: Part 3

written by Iz

Charlie swiped the dust off of the peculiar book. The book was huge and bulky. The dark-green leather on its hard cover gave the impression of its being old. Scratches appeared on some parts of it as if it had survived centuries of battle. He opened the book. The first page had a sentence written on it. He thought it could be like some sort of an incantation but it was too short to be one. The power of the trio will set us for go. He whispered the words. He kept reading. The first few pages of the book narrated the history of magic. The grand design of good and evil, a sense of duality like yin and yang. Magic had been seen as the means of evil but it wasn’t revealed that over the centuries magic was used to fight evil of the world. Demons that walked among people, warlocks that killed good witches to gain powers and fallen witches who practiced dark magic.

“This is ridiculous.” Charlie told himself. “So I read this and I become Harry Potter or something?”

He closed the book thinking that it was such a waste of time spending a few hours reading some old witchcraft history that had nothing to do with him. He put the book back into the chest and went out of the basement. As he walked to his room, the triquetra symbol glowed. He tucked himself to sleep when the triquetra symbol became brighter. The glow levitated on the air and broke to individual symbols. The symbols flied across the villa and reached Connor, Caleb and Charlie. The symbols landed on their chest then disappeared like they were absorbed into the brothers’ bodies.

Charlie woke up the next morning. He was drenched in sweat. Perplexity filled his mind when he discovered that he wasn’t in his room. He rubbed his eyes hard. Disbelief overwhelmed him as he was lying on the living room floor. He got up and went to the kitchen only to see Connor was having his breakfast.

“I could use some of that coffee you’re having.” Charlie sat on the stool next to Connor. Connor got up and dispensed some coffee from the coffee-maker and handed it to Charlie. “Thanks.”

“You alright? You look terrible.” Connor took a sip of coffee.

“Thank you.” Charlie said sarcastically. “I don’t know what happened to me. I woke up at the living room floor.” He took a few sips of coffee from his blue colored mug. “I clearly remember that I slept in my room last night.”

“Maybe you were sleepwalking.” Connor took a guess.

"If I had sleepwalked, wouldn't I had been having that since I was a kid?" Charlie asked Connor.

Connor took a bite of peanut butter toast before saying, "I don't know. The other day I saw on Desperate Housewives that one can develop that out of guilt or something."

"Or something?" Charlie repeated, skeptical.

"Don't ask me. I'm no medical expert. I work in an advertising company, okay. Maybe you should ask Caleb about this. Figure he would at least have some ideas about it." Connor went to the toaster and took two slices of toasts, placed it on a purple ceramic plate and handed them to Charlie. "Here are some peanut butter and various flavor of jams."

"Thanks. Speaking of which, where's Caleb?" Charlie grabbed a butter knife and took a big chunk of peanut butter before putting them on the toasts.

"I guess he went out early. Maybe he went out to work." Connor could only guest as he didn't know anything about it any better.

"Or maybe he went to see Luke? Or investigate about him?" Charlie took more wild guesses.

"I hope everything will turn out fine for him. I don't want him to face another sorrow after we lost our dad, you know." A bit of concern was present in Connor's voice.

"I wouldn't worry much about him. He's a grown man. Sure he can take care of himself pretty good." Charlie finished off his first toast.

Connor said, "Well, both of you are my only brothers and I sure don't want anything to happen to you both. Whether you like it or not, I'm looking out for you two. I'm the big bro, aren't I?"

Weirdly, Connor put on a very warm smile on his face which was something he rarely did. The denotation behind that smile was understood by Charlie. Though he wouldn't admit it in a million years, Charlie cared for his eldest brother regardless. He would always be known as the one who rebelled, the one who got into trouble for no reason but never meant all that to be a sign of defiance toward his brothers.

"It's like you can count on me like one two three…" Connor started singing.

"Whoa! Hold it right there. Don't you go all Bruno Mars on me. It's just weird, man." Charlie dropped his toast onto the ceramic plate and raised both of his hands.

"Yeah, probably not a good idea." Connor started laughing and Charlie joined him.

There was a familiar feeling to that. They were one big happy family. Their parents were pretty much crazy in love with each other years ago before it all shattered into pieces. Pieces that couldn't be put back together.

"Guess we can have a civilized conversation without shoving knives to one another's throat." Charlie muttered after he was done laughing.

"Yeah, I guess we can." Connor agreed.

"Hey, I forgot to tell you last night I got the chest opened." Charlie changed the subject.

"Seriously? How?" Connor was invoked by confusion and curiosity.

Charlie started telling Connor how he carried the chest into the basement and found out the padlock was unlocked as he believed was caused by the impact he made from putting the chest onto the floor pretty hard. He also told Connor that he found a big thick green leathered book with a triquetra symbol on it inside the old wooden chest. He told Connor he read a few first pages of the book about witchcraft history and how they somehow related to those stated in the book.

"Witchcraft?" Connor was flabbergasted.

"Nah, I wouldn't worry much about it. Probably just nothing." Charlie cleaned up the kitchen and put everything into the dishwasher to get them cleaned.

"I'll get down and see the book for myself later. Now, I'm just going to get ready for a jog." Connor stood up from the stool.

"You do that. I need to get ready myself." Charlie started leaving the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Puzzled by this, Connor asked Charlie.

"Think I'm meeting Caleb at the hospital. Maybe he needs help with Luke Greene investigation thingy. Plus, he did promise to land me that bartending gig here." Charlie put on his mischievous look.

"Don't do anything stupid okay. Be safe." Connor said to Charlie half yelling as he already left the kitchen running towards the shower.

Connor put on a pair of black shorts, sleeveless red muscle shirt and a pair of red running shoes. It suited his muscular built even though he wasn’t as well-built as Charlie was. He locked the door behind him and headed to the nearby park to go for a jog. His dirty blonde hair shined under the hot scorching sun of the morning. A girl ran passed him couldn't help but become aware of the hazel eyes he had. Connor saw the girl was looking at him so set a smile on his rose-tinted lips which also showed a set of white dazzling teeth. 

He began to do his stretches to warm up his body as he arrived at the park. He felt effortless when he jogged. He wanted to challenge himself so he changed his pace to be more rapidly. Gradually, he gained the momentum to run faster, and faster. It was late till he realized that he was in the middle of the city of Los Angeles. Some cars honked at him for standing in the middle of the road. He didn't understand how he could get to the city when it usually took 45 minutes to get there even by using a vehicle and he somehow got there in a couple of minutes. He walked around and found Starbucks. He sat there trying to make sense what just happened.

Connor thought there must be a very good explanation to this. He took a cab and went back to the villa. He immediately went to the basement and tried looking for the chest that Charlie brought down the night before. As he found the chest, he quickly took the book out from it and flipped through the pages. He read again what had been read by Charlie the other night, only Connor decided to read further.

Connor found out that the Alexanders were the descendants of a once very powerful witch who sacrificed herself to obliterate one of the most powerful forces of evil in the entire universe. According to the prophecy written in it, there would be a time where three witches would inherit the gifts to continue the legacy. These witches, regardless of gender, would possess three types of magical powers. The first was superhuman magical abilities, the second was the magical power of elemental control and the last one would be the power of magical defense.

Connor read the last line that illustrated the powers. "These powers when combined would be the most powerful ever existed on the face of Earth. And this power would be known as the ‘Power of the Trio’." He closed the book. He let this new discovery sink in to his head. “I’m a witch?” He shook his head in disbelief.

Before he could open the book to continue reading it, there was a loud booming sound upstairs.