Charmed Ones: Part 5

|0 comment(s)
"What the hell happened here?" Connor came out from the basement looking very shock to see the living room in a very big mess. The wooden coffee table was smashed. Its debris scattered across the room. Connor looked at it. The table held loads of memories when he was growing up in the house. The hot chocolate he'd share with his dad, the cinnamon flavored cookies his mom baked every Saturday evening, the place where he'd put his drawings he brought back from the kindergarten. As the table shattered into pieces, pieces of his memories of his childhood shattered with it. But that was no longer the concern. He realized that when he thought about his memories in the living room with his parents, his only brothers, Caleb and Charlie were trying to get onto their feet. He ran towards both of them, put the thick green book that he was holding on the floor beside him and helped them.

"You guys okay?" Connor asked both Caleb and Charlie. Caleb seemed fine from what he saw but Charlie on the other hand had some bruises on his face. The fair complexion of his skin made the bruises appeared more bright.

Charlie was a fair skinned guy with a fairly wavy dirty blond hair. His hair was lighter blond compared to Connor's and had a strong squared bone structure which emphasized masculine look in his face. The bruises on his sharp nose and left side of his forehead didn't affect his handsome look one bit. He managed to put on a smile on his face, hiding the slight pain he felt on his face. The smile made a few lines visible at the corner of his hazel eyes. "I'm okay." He said shortly.

"This guy just brought us back from the hospital." Caleb pointed at Charlie and cleared the dusts in his brunette hair.

"Seriously? How?" Connor asked in disbelief. Both Connor and Caleb were looking straight into Charlie's eyes.

Somehow, Charlie didn't like the way his brothers looked at him. He said, "How should I know? I'm trying to figure it out myself."

"Look at the place. It's a disaster." Connor said it with a sigh.

Charlie shot a look at him. He didn't like the tone Connor was using. He felt like he was responsible for making the living room a mess and making their childhood memories vanished. He thought Connor didn't understand that he too had memories of growing up in that place. It was so unfair that he had to feel so accused of doing something he didn't do. He could still remember playing with small trucks and Connor would always be there to make his life miserable by taking them away and Caleb would help him to get his toys back from Connor. Growing up, he would always see him as the bully. He didn't understand why he couldn't just leave him alone. Up till today, he would never be sure he if could count on Connor about anything ever. "What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying that I'm responsible for this?" Charlie asked Connor exasperatingly. There was a bit of anger in his tone.

"Well, weren't you the one who landed on it? Do you know how precious that table was?" Connor raised his hands in desperation. He wasn't sure why he reacted that way. He knew Charlie didn't deliberately destroy the coffee table, but he felt sad by the fact that there would be nothing they could hold on to as a remembrance of their father anymore. Somehow, he knew that he was being unfair towards Charlie.

Charlie was about to say something but Caleb stopped him and said, "Charlie saved my life. I think destroying the coffee table isn't much of a big deal right now. I think someone wants me dead."

Connor was stunned. His attention was no longer on the destroyed coffee table. He asked, "What happened?"

Caleb told Connor how he'd revived Mr. Vasquez, a dying patient, by only using his bare hands. He also told that he could shoot red electrical discharge from his fingers. After Caleb had done telling Connor what happened to him in the hospital, Charlie later told Connor how a weird looking bearded guy who wore all-black outfit shot a fireball at Caleb.

"That was so impulsive, Charlie. You could've gotten killed." said Charlie. There was a bit of concern in his tone.

"Yeah, I wasn't thinking clearly. Caleb could've gotten killed as well. I just didn't want that to happen." Charlie was trying to act indifferently.

"I'm just glad both of us are safe now. Plus, we need to figure out what the hell is going on right now." Caleb stopped before continuing, "I can shoot electricity from my fingers, Charlie can teleport us back here. How about you? Anything weird happened to you today?"

"Something did happen to me today.Think I can run very quickly. Like super-speed or something." Connor said it hesitantly. He couldn't believe himself that he was talking about this right now. He wouldn't have believed it if this happened last week. But series of inexplicable things had been happening to the Alexander brothers, Connor didn't know what to believe in anymore. The only thing that could probably explain what had been happening was the thick green book that was lying on the floor right where Connor left it when he went to check on Caleb and Charlie.

Charlie asked, "Does anyone have any idea what's happening? I have a really bad feeling about this." 

"I think this book explains everything." Connor went to pick up the book from the floor. "This is the Ultimate Book of Shadows."

"Ultimate Book of Shadows?" Caleb sounded astonished. "That sounds a bit witchcraft-ish to me."

"It is indeed a book of witchcraft." Connor stopped from saying anything. He felt there was a big lump in his throat that choked him, preventing from uttering any words next. It wasn't because he didn't want to, but it was because he found it extremely hard to believe what he was going to say to his brothers himself. He continued, "Guys, I think we are the descendants of a great witch. And whatever that's been happening to us today, they're actually our powers."

"We are witches? And we have powers?" Charlie couldn't seem to get everything sunk in into his head instantly. It was too much of big news for him. Slowly, he sat on the dark purple single seat couch in the room. He brought his right hand and slide it in his hair all the way back. His dirty blond hair followed the motion his hand made and later get back into wavy messy position where it was.

"And what is the purpose of having these powers anyway? Any explanation from the book? Plus, if we are magical aren't we supposed to be wizards instead of witches?" Caleb couldn't seem to stop himself from asking questions. He would love to ask for more as his head was full of questions that needed answers. He felt like he needed every explanation Connor could give him, but he decided not to overwhelm Connor with unanswerable questions as he thought Connor was as new as he was in this witchcraft thing.

"Apparently, we're not. Somehow in this weird universe we're known as witches. Wizards are a whole different type of magical being, which powers usually come from their designated staffs. According to the Ultimate Book of Shadows, witches are magical beings who protect the innocents from the evil of the world. The first line of defense in the battle between good and evil. Our powers are meant to do great things in the world. We're supposed to maintain the balance of good and evil by, well, protecting the innocents." Connor explained pretty much what Caleb asked him. "The book pretty much explained everything we need to know about us."

Connor went on explaining further on what types of powers they each owned. Connor inherited the superhuman magical abilities, Caleb possessed the magical power of elemental control and Charlie acquired the power of magical defense. Connor further explained that their powers would grow as much as they practiced their power for good purposes. Connor then explained the guy they met at the hospital might be a demon, witches' typical sworn enemy.

"I don't know. Don't you think this seems a bit too farfetched?" Caleb said reacting to what Connor had explained. Yesterday he was just an ordinary medical assistant who was extremely busy attending to his patients at the hospital. Today, series of weird events happened led to him finding out that he had magical powers and he needed to protect innocent people now.

"Caleb, do you have any better explanation on what have been happening to us all day? I think Connor is right. Think about it, why did the guy we met in the hospital want you dead? It must be the fact that we're the good guys and they're not. I think if we're supposed to be the so called guardian of innocent people out there, the bad guys must want us dead." Charlie supported Connor this time. He knew it was something he'd rarely do, but he needed to have something to believe in. It seemed ridiculous to him at first, but when he thought about it everything made perfect sense.

All three of them began to be preoccupied into their conversation on their new discovery, they didn't notice that someone came from the kitchen. The footsteps were so silent the Alexander brothers only realized his presence at the very last minute when they had come facing one another.

"Haven't anyone told you that it's very rude to run away from a battle?" The bearded all-black outfitted guy said it while fireballs suddenly integrated in both of his palms. He threw the fireballs at the brothers who were caught off guard.

Panic with the situation, Charlie suddenly disappeared for one second in his blue light and reappeared the next second which made him able to evade the fireball. Unfortunately, this time the fireball hit Caleb who wasn't prepared when they were attacked. The fireball hit him on the right shoulder which made a huge wound consequently. Caleb was thrown away a few steps back and fell on his back. Seeing what had happened before his eyes, Connor ran towards the demon very rapidly using his magical speed and punched him in his face which somewhat brought no effect. The demon slapped him using the back of his hand and that threw Connor across the living room. Charlie made the next attempt by disappearing from the place where he stood to reappearing behind the demon. Quickly, he grabbed the table lamp and smashed it onto the demon's head. The demon seemed unaffected, turned around and slapped Charlie using his backhand just like Connor. Charlie got thrown across the other side of room.

Seeing his brothers beaten up like that made Caleb very angry. He began to stand on his feet. The anger he had in him built up his emotion, which made the electrical sparks started to appear in between his fingers. The demon noticed it and put a big grin in his face and said, "Now, that's what I called a challenge. A real power."

The electrical sparks turned into continuous red electrical discharge. Caleb heard what the demon was saying but he chose to ignore it. "Nobody messed with my brothers and got away with it." With that, Caleb put all he had to one target, the demon. He blasted a big red electrical discharge towards the demon with both of his hands. It hit the demon and he was electrocuted continuously. Caleb's anger had made his power unstoppable. The electrical discharge began to take its toll at the demon. The demon screamed very loudly. Every parts of his body were in a great deal of pain as if he was burned by volcanic lava and his body began to smoke. It was very unbearable, the demon shouted, "This is just the start, witches! More will come for you! You will die!" 

As soon as he finished his last sentence, the demon blew up into pieces. The explosion threw Caleb across the room near to the kitchen. He hit his head on the dining table before landed on the floor. The falling made him bleed his head. Despite the pain they had, both Connor and Charlie quickly stood up and ran to check on Caleb. At first sight, Caleb was in pretty bad shape. The bleeding on his forehead didn't seem to show any sign that it would stop.

"Connor, what should we do?" Charlie grabbed Caleb in his arms, shaking Caleb's body a bit to wake him. He checked on Caleb's pulse, it was still beating. "He's alive." Charlie continued his attempt to wake Caleb by continuously calling his name and shaking his body harder.

"I think we better get him to the hospital. There's nothing we can do here. I'll get the car." Connor tried to stand up but he fell back on the floor. His injury was more serious than he anticipated. He couldn't stand.

"Maybe I can teleport us to the hospital." Charlie tried to focus as he closed his eyes very tightly but nothing happened. "Why can't I do it this time?" Anxiety filled into Charlie. He looked at Caleb's bleeding and got more anxious. "No!" He screamed in exasperation.

Connor tried to calm Charlie down and said, "Calm down, Charlie. Maybe you need to focus more. I got your back." He reassured that. "I have faith in you."

Before Charlie could do anything, suddenly green flashing orbs appeared in front of Connor and him. The green orbs levitated on the air for a few seconds before it slowly took a shape and became very bright. The green orbs later fully turned into a human form, it was like someone just teleported before their eyes. Someone very familiar to the brothers.

"Luke!" Connor was taken aback by what he saw. "How did you do that?"

Luke said, "I'll explain later. Now, let me save Caleb's life."