W.I.T.C.H: Against the Flow

Chapter Eighteen: A Witch's Season

"Fall has awoken with the sleep of the sun, the light has been broken; the fight has begun."

Summer went by faster than ever. With almost everyone out of town, and the world returning to a more normal state, especially as compared to the previous year, Heatherfield was also quite empty.

Most people like to travel and they do it whenever they can whether it would be for work or for vacation, it didn't matter.

Hay Lin and Eric Lyndon's flight had been delayed. They would be home a few hours later than anticipated but it didn't matter; the entire day was a day off anyway.

The young couple was returning from yet another destination this summer - Uruguay, but this time they were returning to Heatherfield for a longer period of time.

Hay Lin looked through the window as they flew through the clouds and sighed. Once, she had dreamed of becoming a flight attendant or even a pilot, with her natural anti-natural to gravitation gravitation toward air. Yes, she had an everlasting talent which could've come in handy had she chosen any professional field that has to do with flying but life had happened differently.

Plans and ideas changed all the time but what she couldn't deny was she felt good here. Amid the clouds, looking at the world from above...

"Hey, you." Her boyfriend spoke in her ear, making her jump ever so slightly. She had been submerged in her thoughts. "You're not nervous, are you? About meeting your friends again?"

Hay Lin wanted to deny but it wasn't that easy. She hadn't seen her friends in almost two months. She hadn't talked to them too much either. Not as much as she had wanted to anyway.

Because their group had suffered a severe breakdown two months ago. And nothing was the same anymore. Not would it ever be, unfortunately...

Eric Lyndon sighed realizing his lack of prudence. Of course, she was nervous. Of course, whatever he said wasn't going to change the graveness of the situation but he had to try.

It was now more important than ever for his significant other to be calm and well-disposed:

"Just keep an open mind, Hay Lin, that's at least something you can do naturally. It comes to you, naturally," the man advised. "I know that what happened left a bitter aftertaste in all of us but you're still the guardians."

Hay Lin smiled at him weakly:

"Yeah, you; you're right. We are."

xxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hay Lin's coming back today. We...we are going to meet up. Well, without Irma and Will but you know. I just wanted to tell you."

Cornelia Hale looked up at him somewhat timidly and waited for his reaction.

The man that sat in the leather chair behind the big desk didn't even look up from his laptop.

Caleb Crossnic was how so many already knew him. Caleb Crossnic was as handsome as ever in his dark business suit. He was broad-shouldered, tan and his face was as usually overtaken by a harsh look of concentration. But that harshness no longer cleared off at the sight of her, and that frightened Cornelia.

She feared that what she had forced the man into would make him gradually resent her. He was already resentful at times; he had been for months but she hadn't noticed. She hadn't paid attention because she had other things to mind. More important, she had deemed them...

Bulshit.

Now that the tables had turned, she could see how forcing Caleb into business and the life her family had always envisioned for them had been a bad decision. She could see it, but there was no going back anymore and all that was left to do was fear the future and watch helplessly, day after day.