The next morning, Lin didn’t make her usual trip to the café for breakfast. Instead she pulled out her large suit case and bewitched it to hold all the possessions she’d acquired since moving to Blackthorn. This was not a trick of sorcery, but of common witch craft.
Like clockwork, her mother called at about 10 a.m., and when Lin told her she wanted to come home, she was thrilled. She just hoped she could get out of town quietly before anyone questioned her. Then she heard a loud banging noise from outside her apartment.
She opened her door and saw movers in the hallway. Several of her neighbors’ doors were opened, up and down the hall. Lin walked down and peered inside; they were all fixing to leave, just like Lin.
It made her feel like less of a coward. If she could have, she would have left that very evening, but she at least owed her boss, Miles, an explanation. And so the next day at school, Lin shamefully stared at the floor as she handed him her written letter of resignation.
The rest of the day she couldn’t even look into the face of her fellow teachers. She avoided the break room and barely spoke with anyone outside of her classroom. It was the same at the museum. No one looked at her, and she didn’t look at them.
That evening, Milton came to her door.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’ve come to speak with you.”
“I don’t have time right now.”
She attempted to close the door. Milton put his hand up and stopped her.
“Please.”
“Wow!” she said angrily. “You’ve been avoiding me for weeks. Now you want to talk and there’s just no stopping you, is there?”
“Yes, I had to avoid you. You ask too many questions, Lin.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I haven’t time for this. Please, go.”
“Why are you afraid to fight?”
“What are you talking about?”
“What I’m saying is that you could help us. I know you’re powerful. I saw you that night on the mountain. Stay and help us fight.”
“I’m not sure who ‘us’ is, and I don’t care. Good bye.”
Lin shut the door and resumed her packing. There were a couple possible scenarios that crossed her mind, when considering his words and who “us” was, but she just didn’t care. Whether he and Mara were Wackens or contention, she was leaving.