I was in a hallway. The dream was too vague to see exactly where. I was on the floor, grabbing my arm. I could feel the blood dripping. In front of me was this dark figure. It looked like a black robe. He pointed at me with his hands and said, “The First of Three has risen.” He held his hand so that his palm was facing up. A ball of fire appeared. Again he spoke, “The Three shall never rise.” He threw the ball at me and then I would wake up. Every time I would ask grams about it, she just told me to ignore it.

We had just returned from the hospital. Grams had a heart condition, which she needed to check up on every few weeks. The doctor told her to go easy on things because she wouldn’t be able to take a heart attack.

Everything continued to go well. For the next year, I interned at a social services department. By the middle of my senior year, I worked there as an assistant to the boss of the place. I didn’t get paid much. I didn’t even graduate yet. I got about 200$ a week. Michael, Jackie and I were still as close as ever.

On Saturday morning, I got up to find grams cooking something. I asked her what it was and she told me it was some tea. She took a petal from a white rose and threw it in to the tea. “Grams, why did you throw a flower in there?”

“For flavor.”

She let it simmer and sat down.

“I’ll see you later, grams. Remember to take things slow, huh?”

I was going to Mike’s house. There, I was going to meet with him and Jackie and go out to celebrate the fact that Jackie got her license. I locked the door and left.

---

“Finally. I thought he would never leave.”

She took her tea to the attic in a small pot. She lit a candle and Andrea appeared again. “Mother, don’t do this.”

“I have to. I don’t want him to go up against The Source. He’ll get killed. You know this is the only way.”

“But mother, he and his brothers are the only ones who have a chance at vanquishing The Source. Those dreams you said he has been having could be premonitions. The elders might be warning him about what’s to come.”

“They can’t be premonitions. We binded his powers before you left him at the church.”

“Mother, please. If you strip him of his powers, he will die. The Source will find and kill him. And without him to reawaken his brothers, The Rowe Coven will never be. The Source will corrupt and rule all magic: good and evil. The world will come under his power and evil will rule it.”

“Andrea, I’m sorry, but this is the only way. The Charmed Ones will not be constituted.” She blew out the candle and Andrea disappeared.

“He won’t die. Not while I’m around to protect him.” She took the liquid in her pot and poured it into a vile and sealed it.

She walked out the attic door and closed it. As she walked down the stairs, she felt her left arm go numb. Pain was shooting up and down it and her heart hurt. She bent over in the pain and fell down the stairs. The vile opened and the drink was spilt on the floor.

---

I arrived back at the house at 10 o’clock. I invited Mike and Jackie in but they said that it was too late and they needed to get home.

“Can you come by tomorrow?”

“Sure. When should we come?”

“Whenever you want is fine.” I waved and they drove off.

I walked up to the door and opened it. I stepped inside and went to see if grams was in the kitchen.

“Grams? Grams, I’m home.”

I got no answer so I went to see if she was in her room. When I walked to her room, I found her at the steps of the attic. I called her and held her but she didn’t answer. I tried to feel for a pulse but couldn’t find one. She was dead. My grandmother died. I cried there with her in my arms for about an hour.

---

The next day, I went to make some breakfast for myself. I didn’t feel like eating so I just drank some milk. I found the vile on the stairs and I couldn’t figure out what grams was doing with it. It was empty and there seemed to be no trace of a liquid.

By noon, a lawyer was at the door. He came in and said he needed to talk to me about a couple of things.

“What can I help you with?”

“There are a couple of things we have to talk about. First of all, do you have proof of your age?”

I remembered grams gave me my birth certificate the day I moved in.

“Yeah sure. A birth certificate, right?”

“Yes. That will work.”

I went to get the certificate in the drawer where we kept all the important papers. I found it underneath all of the other ones. I went back into the room and gave it to him.

“I’m going to need a copy of this. Do you think you can get me one?”

“Yes. Of course…”

The doorbell cut me off. When I opened it, I remembered that Mike and Jackie were going to stop by. “Oh. Hey guys.”

“Did we come at a bad time?”

“No. No you didn’t. Actually I feel a little better now that you’re here. Come in.” We went into the living room where the lawyer sat.

“I’m sorry but this is family business.”

“It’s all right. We’ll come back latter then.”

I figured since they were leaving, I could ask them for a favor. “Wait guys. Do you think you can go down to the pharmacy and get me a copy of this?”

“Yeah sure. Do you want us to bring it back when we get it or later on?”

“When you get it. Thanks.” They left. I went back to the lawyer and we continued business.

“Since you are 18, you are allowed to live by yourself. Do you have a job?”

“Yes.” He handed me a paper to sign saying that I agreed to live on my own. “Is that all you needed?”

“No. There’s a will.”

It never occurred to me that there would be a will. What could grams have to leave me?

“Althea left in her will for you, this house and everything in it. What you want you can keep and what you don’t want and don’t need you can throw away. Now, the house is paid off, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Grams left me the manor. I couldn’t think about that now. I had to ask, “What about funeral arrangements?”

“She already took care of that. Everything is paid for, so you don’t have to worry about that either.”

I was relieved but sad at the same time. Relieved because the funeral was already paid for but sad because grams knew she was going to die.

---

Ten minutes later, Mike and Jackie returned from the pharmacy with the copy of the birth certificate. I gave it to the lawyer and he left.

We went to sit down in the kitchen and I told them the whole thing. Jackie was in tears and so was Mike although you really couldn’t hear him. They stayed with me the rest of the day and left at around 9 o’clock.

When they left, I went upstairs to where I found grams. I couldn’t understand why she was up in the attic. I went up the steps and found the door closed. Like before, I expected the door to be locked but when I turned the knob, it opened. I went inside and found nothing out of the ordinary. There was a bookstand but no book. I found a chair by the window and sat there.

I couldn’t help it. I felt alone. Seemed like every time I got used to a way of living, it would change and everybody would leave me somehow. I lost some one else: first, my identity, then my mother Melinda and my father. Now I’ve lost grams. I looked at the stars, mentally yelling at the heavens for doing this to me. I felt so alone I thought I was gonna go crazy.

I started crying. I couldn’t help it. It just happened. It felt like all the tears I held back throughout the years were released. I looked at the sky again, this time praying to my mother, like I have been doing for the last two years, and well… grams now too, I guess.

Mother, I never came to you to ask for something but I guess I feel I need to now. I’m alone again. I don’t have a family anymore. Now I’m on my own, really on my own. Give me the strength I need to get me through this. Give me the strength I need to destroy the evils in my world.

After a few minutes of silent tears, I went down to bed. I tried to sleep but sleep wouldn’t come. After about an hour, I finally fell to sleep and had a dream. Not the same dream as before but a different one. I think… I think it was my mother.

Everything was black. There was nothing around. It felt empty and vast. The feeling was so strong it was depressing. Then, a woman appeared. She was dressed in a white gown and had a white light around her that seemed to calm everything down. She stood there and kept repeating the same group of line over and over again:

Up There, the White-Lighter’s Passage:

Althea walks up to Andrea and a blond man. They are holding hands. Andrea is in some form of meditation. Althea gets an idea of what they are doing and walks up to them quicker. “Andrea, what are you doing?”

“She can’t here you, Althea. She’s in deep…”

“You be quiet. You knew exactly how I felt about this. The only reason I didn’t strip my grandchildren of their powers when they were born is because you stopped me.” She moved closer to Andrea and took her hands from the man’s. Andrea came out of her meditation and looked at her mother.

“Two minutes. Two minutes I left you to go see the elders and you do this.”

“Mother, I had to. I wasn’t going to leave him vulnerable to The Source.”

The man spoke up. “Thea, you know if Alex is left there without anything to protect himself, he’ll be in danger.” He looked at Andrea then back at Althea. “We can’t leave our son there to die. Also, the three of them are the only ones who have a chance at vanquishing The Source.”

“I’m sorry mother.”

Althea looks at Andrea, then turns to face Alexis, Alex’s dad. “I’m not going to be able to convince you, am I?” She was stating it more than asking a question. “I hope you’re right. Listen, the only way I’ll feel better about this is if you are their white-lighter, Alexis.”

“You know I would be but the elders forbid it.”

“Then who will be their white-lighter?” Andrea had her hopes that Alexis would be.

“I don’t know. A witch isn’t assigned his or her white-lighter until they receive their powers. We’ll just have to see who the elders choose.”

“When will he receive his power?” asked Althea.

“When he calls for them using the call for a witch’s power spell.”

---

The next day, I went to school. I thought about staying home that day so that I would have some time to recover fully or as full as I can but I figured that it wouldn’t matter much.

I didn’t go to lunch that day. It was too loud. I decided to go to the library instead, where it was quiet. Chris was there. He was another of my close friends. I went to sit down with him and as usual, he was studying.

“Hey Chris.” I tried to hide what was obvious from my voice. I covered up the sadness pretty good, but I guess he could still tell.

“Hey Alex. What’s wrong?”

“Nothin. I’m alright.”

“No you’re not. I’ve known you for a while and I’ve noticed that whenever you come into the library, you are either upset or sad. Now what’s wrong?”

I got to hand it to him. He knew me pretty well. What he said was true. Every time I felt down in the last four years, I came to the library where Chris would be studying. I didn’t want to tell him though. If I told him, it was likely a lot of people would find out. “Don’t worry about. I’ll be fine.”

“Mike said you wouldn’t be coming in today. When I asked him why, he said it wasn’t his business to tell. If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine but know that you can come to me if you need someone to talk to.” Chris and Mike were close too. If he wasn’t with Jackie, or me chances are he would be with Chris.

“Yeah, I know. Thanks.” He told me that every time he thought something was wrong. I didn’t want to tell him but I needed to clear my thoughts. “My grandmother died on Saturday.” He looked up from his book and tried to find something to say. “I’m so sorry.” Chris knew I was adopted and had begun to live with grams two years ago.

“Why didn’t you stay home today?”

“I had to get my mind of some things.” By “some things”, I meant the dream. Ever since I had it, I couldn’t forget it.

It was five minutes before change of class. “I got to go get my books for my late classes. Give me a call later if you want, ok?”

“Yeah, sure.” The dream kept playing over and over in my mind. No matter what I did, those words kept repeating. I thought if I wrote them down it would stop. I took out a sheet of paper and wrote the words down. As I wrote them, I said them.

“Powers of the witches rise
Course unseen across the skies
Come to us who call you near
Come to us and settle here”

I was right. After I wrote them down, it stopped.

---

The Source’s Chamber:

“Tell me, seer. What is it that you see?”

The Source turns to look at the seer who stands across the room. The seer’s eyes turn white and she has a vision. “I see, a Charmed One. Beware, for the Rowe Coven are destined for great things.”

“The Charmed One shall never awaken. I’ll kill them. I’ll send all of the warlocks and demons under my power to kill them. The Rowe Coven will never come together as the Charmed Ones.”