Ashes To Ashes (Charmed) *Chris/OC*

03. Mixed Impressions

After they returned to the manor, Paige gave Blake the grand tour, as promised. She walked her through the living room, the dining room and the kitchen, where she also let her peek through the door down into the basement. Neither of them were particularly interested in going down into the dark and the damp. Blake then followed Paige upstairs as she showed her the different bedrooms, Wyatt's nursery, the bathroom, the laundry room and the way up to the attic.

Blake paid close attention to everything she was told. It was a big house - she wanted to remember where everything was. The attic was really something else though. It was huge and seemed to have a strange presence about it. Blake could practically feel the sensations crawling across her skin.

"It feels strange in here," she commented. "Not bad... Just strange."

"Well, we've had a lot of summonings and vanquishes up here," Paige explained. "You must be sensitive to it. I wonder if that's from your witch side or your Darklighter side."

Blake shrugged. It wasn't something she'd experienced before. "Beats me." She approached the far side of the room where a thick, leather-bound book was resting on its own pedestal. A strange, three-pointed symbol was embossed on the cover. "What's this? Is it like some kind of Bible?"

"More like an encyclopaedia," Paige replied, watching interestedly. She was curious to see what would happen if Blake tried to touch it. The Book of Shadows repelled anyone untrustworthy. What would it do to Blake?

Blake actually looked like she was going to reach for it, but at the last second, she seemed to change her mind. Paige didn't try encouraging her. If she pushed her into it and the Book wouldn't let her touch it, then it would only make her feel worse. Maybe that was a test they could try later on when she'd settled in more. It was obvious enough that she already had a complex about her Darklighter heritage.

With the tour over, Paige directed her back down to the bathroom and showed her how to work the shower and where the clean towels were. Paige promised that nobody would come in, so Blake obligingly left the door closed but unlocked. Then she was finally left alone in this strange new house.

Blake stripped off her clothes and tried to brush the worst of the dust off over the bath, using the handle of a loofah brush to give them a good beating. She felt it would be somewhat counter-productive to wash up only to get back into dusty clothes. She switched the shower head on first to leave the water running for a few minutes. She hadn't had any hot water back at her parents' old house, but it had still always seemed to warm up at least a little after it had been running for a while.

Of course, she did this out of habit and didn't factor in that the Halliwells certainly had hot water running through their pipes. When she climbed into the shower, the burning water scalded her skin. She shrieked instinctively and jumped back out, almost slipping over as some of the water splashed onto the floor tiles. She managed to catch herself on the sink, hoping that nobody had heard her. How embarrassing that she couldn't even take a shower like a normal person. She made sure to readjust the water temperature before she got back in.

Oh, man, that felt so good. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had an actually hot shower. She could already feel some of the tension releasing from her muscles as the burning water pounded against her back, loosening her joints that had become stiff from lack of use. Also when was the last time she'd used shampoo? Shampoo was a luxury that she'd forgotten whilst at the old house.

So now she lathered and soaped her head and body until the water ran clean of dust. She was a little embarrassed at how much dust had actually come from her hair alone. She hoped that the Halliwells hadn't just taken pity on her because they'd been that disgusted by the state they'd found her in. She'd always tried to stay clean - or hygienic at least. Really, she had. The dust had just been inescapable in that dingy, broken house.