New York June, 1925

Your pace quickened with every new stride towards Mary Lou's stronghold, where your beloved Credence resided. The tea leaves had given you a vague warning but it that was enough for you to get up and act. In the past, not just in Salem warnings had been pushed to one side then disaster followed in its wake. Each time suffering too terrible to name clutched at your heart, shattering it into a million strads upon the floor.

Grief knocked you sidewards each and every time that he had torn from your loving embrace. This would not be another missing opportunity to act, to safeguard the man you loved from harm. Black thoughts rushed through your mind, creating new terrifying scenarios that could befall Credence in the clutches of Mary Lou Barebone, the woman who would never love him as her own. The woman who would only bring dear Credence pain at the end of each day for simply being, for existing and taking another breath.

The prediction might have been open to interpretation but your worry held steadfast with prior experience of an a similarly toxic individuals and where their idealist yet hate driven morels could and would led. It never ended well for all those involved, your heart could not handle another such loss.

You had to get there soon before trouble brewed

Credence sat upon his cot, rocking back and forth worried that his latest outing had been rumbled and had reached the ever burning ears of the his adoptive mother Mary-Lou. He drew his lower lip into his mouth, biting down anxious. He knew that she would find out, she always did but he dared to hope that this time would be different. He needed it to be, for this new experience was rapidly becoming his way of escaping.

Her smile, your smile was a balming lotion to the stinging pain that came from the crack of the whip wielded to cruelly punish and teach. He sighed, a smile cracked his porcelain mask as he recalled her seated across in that small cafe. It was a moment in time that he wished to go back to and relive it over and over again.

She saw him, keeping her eyes locked with his as she spoke keen to know him. For him to be able to connect with her. His heart raced but not out of fear, this was something new, something different and Credence never wanted that feeling to end. He wanted to fall deep into it's warming, comforting embrace and stay there forever. This dream could only linger whilst he was alone in his room. He needed to get moving, the meeting would be starting soon and any tardiness would be noted. He knew that if he was then the belt would be not that far behind.

Credence pushed himself off the edge of tiny bed tucked in the corner. He brushed at his dark trousers, trying to get rid of any creases in the fabric knowing that he needed to appear spotless. To have nothing of note for Mary Lou to pick at, to have her belittle him over an minor detail and have the smallest of excuses to rain down pain upon him.

He crossed the room before grasping the door handle, pushing it down to open the door. Credence left the bedroom, closing the door behind him. His room was his safe place where for a second in time, there was peace and in that silence he could now dream about a brighter tomorrow.

However he had to lock that away, Credence needed to be the obedient child, in order to avoid riling up his adoptive mother's rage. He had felt the sting of it one too many times in the last few years. He dared to hope that he would get through this meeting unscathed, without the belt coming out to play but that's all he could do,simply hope.

Tina stiffly stood at the back of the group, waiting for Mary Lou to rejoin them. She had disappeared not long after the brunette witch had crossed the threshold. The brunette witch had been led up the stairs to the landing, this was where a small crowd had gathered. This is where the meeting would track place, of this Tina was more certain. An excited nervous energy flowed from the tips of her feets down to the balls of her feet as she stood there, taking in the faces of sympathisers and disciples alike. The flock was meager but thiers collective voices loudly carried, reaching many different walks of life.

This needed to be stopped before it reached the burning ears of those with the power to do something, to influence the masses to see the world just out of reach. To see what had always been there, walking the streets with them side by side each and every day without any hint of it being out of the ordinary. Being an Auror meant upholding the boundaries, keeping both worlds apart. This was just another day at the office for Tina but yet at the same time it was so much more. This was her time to shine, to show that she was capable as her mentor and superiors believed that she could be.

Yet the only thing that she hadn't counted on was the small door opening and Mary Lou's adoptive son Credence stepping out. Tina could not of predicted the events that had been triggered off by his appearance. She could not of known how the wheel would turn.