Disclaimer:All characters are the property of Constance M. Burge, etc
Paige looked around the room she had suddenly appeared in. Where was she? Her eyes took in the surroundings. She warily moved around, looking for some clue as to what this place was.
The place looked familiar. She racked her brains, trying to dredge up a memory of it. Then it hit her. The place should look familiar. She had been down here only a few days ago. It was the basement of the Halliwell Manor. But it looked way different than it had the last time she had seen it.
Usually the basement was dark, rather gloomy, and well, basement like. It was just used as a handy place to store things that weren't used a lot, or memorable objects they couldn't bare to part with.
But now it was fairly clean. In fact it looked to her rather like a teenagers bedroom. There were two beds over near the walls, both of which looked like the covers had just been thrown on top in an attempt to make it look like the room had been cleaned. Posters of Pop stars and movie hunks dotted the walls. There was still some of the usual junk down here but it had been stowed away in boxes and stacked on shelves, which lined the walls.
Paige didn't know how this strange renovation had taken place without her knowledge, or why. Wyatt wasn't going to be a teenager for well over a decade. Anyway, this looked more like a girl's room. Were they having visitors she didn't know about?
Just then she heard the unmistakable sound on footsteps on the stairs. She sighed in relief. That would be one of her sisters, or maybe Leo. They would explain what was going on. And how she'd managed to get down here from the attic.
But the person who walked in certainly wasn't Piper, Phoebe or Leo. It was someone she had never seen before. A young teenage girl, maybe 14 or 15. Slim, with pale skin and long dark hair.
Paige stared at the newcomer. She looked almost exactly like Paige had at that age. Except for the eyes. Whereas Paige's own were brown, this girl had stormy grey- blue eyes. And obviously her clothes were much more modern than the styles that Paige had worn growing up. Other than that Paige would have thought she was seeing herself as a teen again.
The girl didn't seem to find it at all weird that a woman she didn't know was standing in the middle of the room, gawping at her.
The girl smiled casually at her. "hey Ky, watcha doin' down here? I thought you, Carly and Wyatt were gonna see that new movie this arvo."
Paige continued to stare at the girl. She obviously thought that Paige was someone else. Someone who was normally down here. And obviously, this was the girl's room, since she was now chucking her bag on the floor and looking quizzically at Paige.
"Uh, sorry, I think you must have me mixed up with someone else," Paige told the girl, hoping she was doing the right thing by announcing this.
The girl just grinned at her. "Right Kyra, I suppose you're Cleopatra, queen of the Nile," she said, sarcasm lacing her voice. "Come on, we're 14 now. That's way too old to play make- believe. Just be you. You don't need to be anyone else."
It was obvious this wasn't the first such conversation the girl had had with the person she was mistaking Paige for.
Paige's mind suddenly focused on what the girl had said. Fourteen? She was 24, not 14. And there was no way anyone could mistake her for ten years younger than she was. Maybe 20 would be understandable, but 14? No way.
"No, really, my name is Paige Matthews, I'm 24 and I really don't have any idea who Kyra is," Paige declared, nervousness growing at the strange situation.
What was going on? Obviously the spell she had cast had run amok, which wasn't all that unusual, but how had she ended up down here? And why did this girl treat the place as her room? And how had the basement managed to change so much in a couple of days anyway?
This shouldn't have happened. The spell had been a perfectly simple one, although now she realised she should have had one of her sisters on hand to help, just in case.
With both her sisters in happy relationships Paige had been feeling rather down about her own future in the relationship and family departments.
So she'd decided to sneak a peek at her future. She had reasoned to herself that she would be checking on the future of the Charmed Ones, to see how their line was going to be carried on. So of course that wouldn't be breaking the personal gain rule.
So she'd gone up to the attic, found the relevant spell, gathered the stuff she had needed, just as she always did. But then she had cast the spell and ended up down here somehow.
And now there was a furious looking teenager standing glaring at her, looking as if she was either going to slap Paige across the face, or alternatively burst into tears.
"Don't Kyra. Just- don't" the girl said. "Fine with me if you want to pretend not to be yourself. I really don't care. But don't bring her into it. Not yet. It's way too soon." She stormed away up the stairs and slammed the door after herself.
Paige looked after her in astonishment. What was up with her? As soon as Paige had mentioned her own name the girl's attitude had totally changed.
Well at least she seemed to know who Paige was. But her reaction surely couldn't be good. Had something bad happened that she didn't know about? And who was this strange girl anyway?
Maybe her spell had worked after all, in a way at least. Maybe this was her future. If it was then she definitely had to find out why the mention of her name had such an effect on the girl.
She walked over to the beds in the corner. Next to them was a small table with several framed photographs on it. She picked up the one closest to herself and looked at it with amazement.
She almost gasped out loud at what it contained. It was a photo of her, maybe 2 or 3 years older than she was now. But that wasn't the thing she was staring at. No. She was looking at the two tiny babies she was holding in her arms, and the gorgeous guy with his arm around her shoulders.
She flipped it over, hoping that there was writing on the back. If she was going to go out with that hunk in a few years she so wanted to know what his name was.
Luckily there was. "Paige and Jesse with Kyra and Jordyn- aged two weeks" She read out loud. She felt jubilation growing in her. She wasn't going to be alone forever. She was going to have that gorgeous guy and at least two children. Twin girls. That was so cool.
So her theory had been right. This was her future. She was actually seeing the future of her life. But not just seeing it. She was actually living it. And through the body of her daughter.
But why? The spell should have simply given her a view of her future, in the mirror she had enchanted for that purpose. Unless someone had done a summoning for her at the exact same hour and minute. But what was the chance of that?. And who would be trying to summon her anyway?
And anyway, why would she have become trapped in her daughter's body, instead of simply appeared here in her normal form. No doubt that was one of the many things she would have to figure out before she could get back to her own time.
Well, it was unlikely that she was going to find the answers to any of her questions down here in the basement. The best thing to do would be to go upstairs and try to figure this whole mess out.
And pretending to be Kyra for a while probably wouldn't be a bad idea either. Somehow she didn't think any of her future family were going to exactly forthcoming if she went around trying to convince them who she really was. Look how well that had worked with Jordyn.
If she could just find one of her sisters though. Hopefully they would believe her. They were prepared to believe in almost anything in Paige's time. They had had over a decades more experience since then. Of course they'd believe her. And know what to do. They always did.
But if they didn't? What was she going to do then?