The thing with small towns is that everyone seems to be into the life of the others. Soon, there were rumors that a descendant of John Putnam returned to their old state in Ipswich. They didn't know who was as they haven't seen anyone new. They noticed nonetheless that there were lights at the Manor and the gardens were striped from the weed that had outgrown without the work of the once many workers that helped at Putnam Manor. However all the inhabitants were suspicious of the stories surrounding said property and no one dared to go and investigate.
Caleb was uneasy. He felt the use of Power and was afraid of what that may signify given the information that Putnam Manor was occupied. Pogue felt it too; someone was using The Power, very often. Reid was fast to deny that he was the one channeling such amount of Power. He could be reckless sometimes, but he was well aware of the price of being negligent with The Power, as they had seen with Chase the year before. Tyler was afraid. He had used much power once, to prevent an accident with the car of his mother. He didn't mean to channel that much power, but he did, and since then, he had a persistent pain on his left arm that limited his movements. They all knew about Tyler's dilemma, but they understood the importance of what he did. After all, they all lost their parents or were about to lose their parents at young age due to the curse.
To know that none of them used that much power recently made them worried, because they knew who would do it without regards on their own safety. Chase Collins must be back in town.
This time, there had not been darklings that announced tragedies, which meant that Chase hadn't killed anyone on his arrival. However they needed to confirm their suspicions. So they consulted the one piece of information they had in hand, The Book of Damnation.
When they entered the cave where their Witchery books were hidden, Caleb ignited the fire and torches to get light. The book came up front as it always does and opened up to recent events. There it was. It showed a Chase alive and kicking, protecting a person, hiding in the Manor.
Caleb couldn't believe it. He passed his hand for his face. That bastard had the audacity to come back. Pogue was frantic.
"Why is he back! We have to take him out!"
"I know that he wronged us last time. But he hadn't shown his face." Caleb tried to reason. He wanted to have a plan. He didn't want an incident like last year where Pogue got hurt as well as his girlfriend Kate. He was concerned about Sarah too, she took too well their world and what they lived a year ago, yet she was also hurt by Chase's pursuit of more Power.
"So what? We'll wait until his attack again?" This was Reid's preoccupation. Last time, he didn't face Chase, he was far from ascend and was not the immediate target. But now, a year later, the four of them had ascended and liked The Power. Surely someone as greedy as Chase would want to have it all.
"We need to calm down first. We cannot face him one on one, it has to be the four of us. He hadn't come out from Putnam Manor and we shouldn't go and provoke him there. Let's wait for him to come out on the open, where he can't use the power and we have control over the situation."
"Then what?"
"Then we learn about his intention and take him down."
That was the best option they had at the moment, but the perspective of fighting him again didn't make them happy. In the end, they were waiting for Chase to make his move first and that gave them uncertainty. But since no one was in imminent peril, they continued with their lives with normalcy.