The Halliwell Manor, Saturday evening

[izzyalienqueen]

Isabel had taken advantage of Fork's fascination with the America's Next Top Model marathon to slip into the other room and leave messages for Chris, Piper and Phoebe. She was hoping that one of them would be able to somehow magically prevent Fork from leaving the house and heading out to snack on the unsuspecting people of San Francisco. Wyatt would not be happy waking up when this was over if he'd hurt anyone.

Except by the time it started getting dark, no one had called. Which meant more then likely they were victims of Fandom weirdness as well and she'd have to handle this on her own. Fortunately, Isabel already had an idea on how to do that. Unfortunately for Fork, it involved a heavy frying pan, a whole lot of TK and a locked closet.

Two hours later, Isabel finished the Chinese food she'd had delivered, pulled out her phone and started dialing people, curious to see who else had been effected. All the while she kept an eye on the closet door, just in case Fork needed thumping again.

[If you think she would have called you? She did.]

Comments

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Yeah?"

Parker had answered the rich girl's Blackberry when it started buzzing because she was bored, waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

She should've brought more than an iPod with her.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

With one word, Isabel was 99.9% certain Parker wasn't Parker at the moment.

"Hi. Who's this?" she asked cheerfully.

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Who's this?" Parker parroted back, checking the Caller ID. "Isabel," she said aloud, then stopped, wincing.

She'd hit her elbow on the stupid side of the wall. Grr. Way too close in there.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I'm Isabel," Isabel laughed. "But you still haven't said who you are."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I'm Parker," Parker said matter-of-factly. "This is Parker's phone, so I must be her. Right?"

She squinted forward, and lay back with a sigh. Stupid security guard still hadn't left yet.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"There is a certain logic to that," she had to admit. "But whatever you do? Don't apply that logic to her shoes. She gets very protective of them."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Why would I want her shoes?" Parker had already given up on pretending to be the rich girl. Her friend had already guessed anyway. "She has way too many. And they're all three inches high at least." She paused. "Hang on."

Crawling forward on her belly, she got to the edge of the airduct now that the security guard was gone, and smiled. "Ha!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Because they're very nice, very expensive shoes?"

Isabel paused when Faux!Parker told her to and listened to the silence. Finally, she had to ask, "What are you doing?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Another long pause.

"If I told you, you might be able to testify against me later," Parker finally said. "Even though I'm in another country. Did your friend fly me here in the middle of the night? Because that made no sense, waking up to British accents this morning."

Humming as she fiddled with the air ventilation cover. Banging. A few squeaks. "There!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Hopefully this would all be over before any testimony was needed. Of course there was the question of what exactly she was doing that could possibly result in testimony being needed.

Isabel just hoped whatever it was, she didn't get caught. Parker would be pissed if she woke in jail.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Probably not." Parker carefully climbed out of the airshaft, then tiptoed to the door, locking it. "I never believe people anyway."

Then she turned around and smiled at all the safety deposit boxes.

Money. MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY "Money money money money money..."

Interior monologues should stay interior, but Parker never usually worried about that.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Whose money?" Had she gotten Parker's ATM card?

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Mine now!" Parker said gleefully. "I mean, no one's?" She paused. "Bank money isn't like real money, you know," she said very seriously. "It's not personal. Until its yours."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Listening to the numbers being tossed around for the bailout? Yeah, I can see how you can think that," Isabel nodded. "It still doesn't make it right."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker rolled her eyes. "Boring. Listen, I have to go. There's a lot to be done before I get out of here. Maybe I'll call you back if I get stuck on one of those little red buses for a long time." Another pause. "No, I really won't."

And she hung up, and started humming again as she opened safety deposit box after box, and began emptying them into the knapsacks she'd brought with her.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel shook her head and closed the phone. She couldn't wait to talk to Parker when all this was over.

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Eve was not Eve when she got the call.

Rachel stared at the caller ID for a moment, trying to figure out if Isabel's name sounded familiar. Shrugging, she picked it up, figuring she might as well answer.

"Hello?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Hey Eve, how's Savannah doing?" Isabel asked. "Or do you have no clue who I'm talking about?"

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"No clue whatsoever," Rachel said, settling back on her bed. Well, the bed she'd woken up in. "Don't know either of those names."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Somehow this is not surprising me. The weirdness is widespread," she replied. "Don't worry. Just hang out and go with it."

But of course the question had to be answered. "Who are you?"

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"Rachel Jansen," she replied. "Who's this Eve? And why is she all into magic? Is she Wiccan or something?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Something like that," Isabel said. Because explanations that magic was real and so where aliens were difficult over the phone. She couldn't use any of her normal tricks to back the story up.

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"That'd explain the books I found this morning, then." And made this Eve, whoever she was, much less of a freak to have that stuff around.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

She could only imagine what she'd found. Remember the mummy invasion way back when, and what caused it, Isabel felt she'd better warn Rachel before the island had more to deal with then a whole of confused people. "Yeah, the books. It's probably best to just leave those alone. Better safe then sorry and all that."

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"Does reading them and then shrieking loudly count? Because that's kind of what I did."

Because really, waking up in confusion and then finding weird books with spells in them? Warranted that reaction like little else.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"It all depends on if the zombies show up," Isabel replied, mostly kidding.

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"... zombies?!"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Or mummies," she said easily. "You know that quote right? There are more things in heaven and earth, then are dreamt of in your philosophy."

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"Oh, God," Rachel muttered, fighting the urge to start rocking back and forth. "What the hell kind of nightmare did I wake up in?"

As if she hadn't disliked high school enough already!

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"It's not so bad. Just stay in the dorms and you'll be fine," Isabel assured her. "Don't think to much and just go with it. You might have fun."

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"Um... okay," Rachel said doubtfully. "Guess I can't get in too much trouble if I stay in the dorms."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"They're the best place to be especially considering some of the entries on my friend's list," she replied. "Go to a common room, flip the TV on to something mindless and get some snacks. People will turn up and hang out."

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"That does sound like a better idea than going out," Rachel admitted.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Yup, and give it a day or two, and things will be back to normal," Isabel promised.

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"Oh, thank God." A pause. "Does this kind of thing happen often?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Often enough that you just learn to go with it," she said matter-of-factly.

[apocalypsesoon.livejournal.com]

It was buzzing, and marked Isabel. John hoped it was a wrong number and that it was a stupid idea to answer someone's communique.

"Hello."