24. Goodbye.

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  Esther stirs in her sleep. Her dreams replay the scenes in the subway from the night before. Her body twitches then into shifting side to side. She grabs the sheets draped over her.

  In the subway, she's faced with an army of aurors. Her stance is unyielding, determined to protect Credence from their harm.

  "Crucio!" She shouts. Electric green shockwaves produce from her wand. A row of aurors falls to the ground screaming in agony.

  "Crucio!" She repeats.

  She continues to blast every auror to the floor.  Madam Piquery stands before her above the fallen bodies. She scowls at the congresswoman then turns behind her to face Grindelwald. She raises her wand at him.

  "You will never hurt Credence again," She declares to the wizard, "Avada Kedavra."

The green lightning bolt strikes at the powerful wizard and he falls to the ground. She focuses on the lifeless body when her stomach twists into knots realizing what her rage caused her to do.

Her body swings upwards from her position. She gasps for air and covers her face while tears stream off her palms. Beans jumps onto the bed and sits next to her. His loud purrs are drowned by her whimpering. Tremors continue but decrease by the company of the feline.

She rubs her tears away to look at his wide yellow eyes. His eyelids close into slits showing his unconditional love. She scoops him up into her lap for him to rub his head against hers.  His purrs reverberate against her chest. With Beans still in her arms, she climbs off her bed and walks towards the kitchen.

She enters the dark living room. The indigo sky glistens through the windows. She looks down at the suitcase placed on the floor as she follows the clear path to the kitchen. She approaches the bottles of spirits and grabs a glass from the cabinet. She pours the dark liquid into the cup but can find the courage to bring it to her lips. She leaves it on the counter and reaches for the larger glass and pours water into it to drink.

Images of her nightmare fog her mind. There's no way she can go back to sleep. After gulping down the water she places it into the sink and begins to busy herself to clean her atrocious apartment.

———— *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The commotion of the beasts in Newts case stirs him awake. He swings out of his hammock and begins to start breakfast for his beloved creatures.

"Good morning Pickett." He greets retrieving him from the chestnut tree that he lived on. He chirps in response dangling his twig legs off the wizard's shoulder. He smiles glancing at him as he finishes his chore of the morning.

The happiness of his creatures lifts his spirit knowing the sadness of today. He will be leaving New York and the friends he's made on the way.

He returns to his hut and notices how shabby he looks. He inspects the hairs growing on his cheeks and rubs against the stubble. He takes shaving cream and a straight razor to shave it clean.

Once his face is smooth, he changes into a new set of clothes, although they're similar in style and color as his previous outfit. He loves the cheerful pop of yellow under his coat.

He makes his way up the stairs with Pickett in tow snuggled into his breast pocket. He immerses himself into a room he hasn't seen before. It's dark and cold. With much consideration, he tiptoes out from his case searching for an exit. On his way towards a cracked door, something catches his foot leading him to tumble to the ground.

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