Force of Nature | Charmed [1]

prologue.

San Francisco, 1978
There was a quietness resting over the Halliwell Manor that morning as the sun rose. No one quite knew the significance of that quiet except one little girl who sat on her window sill with a bad feeling in her bones that told her something was about change. The quietness was the calm before the storm. One that would change the lives of all the Halliwell's forever.

"Owen?" Paisley called to the ghost who stood in the doorway to her bedroom. "Yes, Paisley," Owen answered coming closer to her as she turned to look at him. "What is it like?" Paisley asked with a small voice that showed her childlike nature.

"What is what like?" Owen questioned with confusion on what exactly Paisley wanted to know. " To be dead," Paisley elaborated in a more clear and mature voice as she stared curiously at him.

Owen went silent at that as he tried to think of an answer that would be suitable for the six year old in front of him. Thankfully, he was interrupted by her mother who was yelling for her to come down for breakfast.

***

"Paisley, Prue I am leaving come on down and put your shoes on," Patty yelled up the stairs as the girls came running  down the stairs after each other. Once they were both down stairs, Patty noticed a paleness in Paisley's skin. "Paisley, Are you feeling okay?" Patty asked concerned as she checked Paisley's forehead to feel that she had a slight temperature.

"Mummy I'm fine," Paisley replied putting on a brave face. "No, you are not. Mom, would you come in here?" Patty shouted to Penny in the kitchen who came rushing into the hall.

Penny held her hand against Paisley's forehead which was hot to touch suggesting that Paisley had a fever. "You are going back to bed go," Penny commanded her granddaughter who quickly ran up the stairs to her bedroom.

"Don't worry, Patty. I'll look after Paisley," Penny stated with a hand on Patty's shoulder. But Patty didn't move still concerned about Paisley, knowing all she wanted was to stay and look after her and make sure she was okay.

Patty took her Mom's word that she would look after Paisley, so she left the Halliwell Manor with Prue trailing behind her. Though all through the day she worried about Paisley, that distraction and another would cause her, her life.

***

Many hours had passed since Patty had left that morning and Penny was starting to get worried. She kept checking the clock as she stood in the kitchen cooking. Penny heard a car pull up out side of the house and signed slightly in relief believing it to possibly be her daughter and Prue.

"Girls, is that your mother and Prue pulling into the drive?" Penny yelled from the kitchen. Paisley came running into the kitchen looking slightly more herself than she had that morning, "Mommy's gone."

"What do you mean, sweetheart," Penny asked kneeling in front of Paisley. However before she could answer, there was a knock on the front door. Penny walked to the front door leaving little Paisley sitting on a seat at the table and the silhouette of a man was seen through the glass panes.

Realizing that the figure was a police officer, Penny thought to what her granddaughter had just said before and she started to tear up at the possibility of her daughter being gone. Finally composing herself, Penny opened the door, "Can I help you?" Penny asked the officer in front of her.

"I am sorry to inform that your daughter was found dead at Camp Skylark this afternoon," the officer informed Penny who had a feeling that this was what the officer was here about after her conversation with her granddaughter. "Where is my granddaughter?" Penny asked the officer who looked confused at the question. "She was with my daughter this afternoon," Penny elaborated for the officer as she tried to keep her nerves in check.

While the officer radioed to check on Prue, Penny gather her other granddaughters and put them in the car. "Grams, where are we going?" Piper asked as her and her sisters sat in the back of the car. Penny looked back at her three grandchildren knew she couldn't tell them the complete truth just yet. "We are going to pick your Mommy and Prue up," Penny replied which made the girls cheer.

Patty Halliwell's death signified the end of childhood for the two eldest who would grow up quickly to help their Grams raise their younger sisters. Both would remember this day for the rest of their lives, one more clearly than the other who would lose part of her self only for it to return 20 years later.