I stopped running. I looked up. The moon began to close in behind the clouds. After catching my breath, I started up again. While running I ran into "her." She had white hair in a ponytail and a lovely shade of magenta in her eyes. I helped her up off the pavement and she wrapped me in a tight hug.

"Ben!" She shouted. "I never thought I'd see you again." She released her grip and pulled her long bangs behind her ears.

"I'm glad to see you to Hope." I said rubbing my shirt to ooze out the wrinkle she had created. I stood and stared at her. She was really strange to me. Something about her was different.

"Listen…"and she paused for a brief moment.

I took her by the hand and pulled her close. I noticed she was covered in blood. I didn't notice it before when she bumped into me, but she was bleeding. And as much as I hated to do it, I took her to my house. We entered through the gate and up the front porch steps.

"Look, you really shouldn't be around me I…" She paused again as the two of us entered my house. She began to gaze at the pictures on the wall. I had to tell her that most of the pictures were kind of embarrassing, and she didn't need to see them. We went into the kitchen, and I pulled out the first aid kit from under the sink.

"Your house is really nice." She said.

I answered quickly with thanks and sat the kit on the table.

"You… You uh… want to sit down." I asked.

She hesitated but smiled and sat.

"So… What happened to you?" I said opening the box.

She looked up at me. No response.

"Okay…" I said and then I looked through the box and found a thing of dressing to tie up her arm.

She pulled her ponytail to one side and smiled at me. I didn't know why, but for some reason I was nervous. I felt weird helping her with her injury.

"Okay Hope, you… you uh… might need to take off your jacket." I said nervously. She was wearing a black jacket that I've never seen before.

"Oh… Okay… yeah sure." She began unzipping her jacket and I gulped. She put her jacket on the back of the chair. Her bare arms under a small pink tank-top were now showing. Her arm was bloody from her shoulder down. I began to wrap her arm making the cuts disappear behind a cloth of white bandage.

"Hope…what happened to you…" I said slowly.

I looked up at her.

"I can't tell you."

"Hope…is it Hex? Did he do this?"

"No! Okay just drop it!

She quickly pulled her jacket back up over her before I had time to finish doctoring her. There were a long pause and a broken connection between us. I had to break the silence.

"Okay… What's…uh… Why do… What's going on in your life… can you tell me why you were running?"

"Ben… if you knew something…Even if it was something bad… Would you still be my friend?" She asked.

"Of course." I replied back to her. We stared at each other for the longest time. I leaned forward toward her. I shut the first aid kit and stored it away. I had a sudden rush of a chill wash over me. I became more anxious as she stared at me. I didn't fully understand my sensation, but as I tried to make since of it there was a loud knock at the door.

"He's here…he's found me." Hope said as she sprang to her feet and went into the living room. I followed her rather quickly.

"Who's here?" I said reaching for the doorknob.

"Ben don't!" Hope screamed.

"What, why?" I turned the doorknob.

However, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. This all started several weeks ago after I broke up with Julie.

"Ben, we can still be friends, but I…I just can't be with you anymore."

"What, why?"

"It's just we're…Times change, and so do people… I…I can't be with you anymore."

"But we can still be friends?"

"Of course."

"I know this will be hard for you, but I'm sure you'll be able to find someone else."

Julie gave me a pat on my shoulder and left me standing by myself in the middle of the schoolyard. Find someone else? Someone else! I always pictured Julie being the one for me; however, she was right, times change and so do people. One person, specifically, changed for the better. However, I'm getting ahead of myself again. It's been a real rush you know. Gwen and Kevin went off to college, and I'm fighting bad guys on a regular basis, I'm surprised I even have time for girls. Time is the key word, though. Time yes that is definitely the key word. Or is it fate? Either way shortly after Julie and I broke up, I was enjoying the single life. I was enjoying Ben classic time. Time that I made for myself. Then, one afternoon I came home, and Paradox was sitting in my desk chair near the computer in my bedroom.

"Paradox!"

"Hello Ben."

Unknown to me at the "time" was that my life was about to change forever, I was about to have what I call now a "Charmed" life.