We finally approach the car. I sigh. Asphodel immediately scours the area for Garth. She can't seem to find any sign he even got here.
"Nothing at all." She says.
"What do you mean?"
"No sign of him."
"So what now?" I ask.
"We take the car."
"Do you know how to drive?"
"No, I was hoping you might." She admits and gulps audibly.
I shake lightly. I never drove even though I have my beginners. I don't know if I'm ready for this.
"I have my beginners..." I say.
"Well, guess that makes you the driver." She smiles.
"Hah, I guess so." I give a fake laugh.
"You've never driven before, have you...?" she realizes.
"Nope."
"So an enchanted car is even less so..." She seems to be drifting into her thoughts deeply.
We stand in silence for a moment. Should we risk it? I wonder. It's not like we are using a regular car. How different can it be?
"Get in." I say.
"I thought you never drove?" Asphodel asks.
"I haven't." I walk up to the car.
"Now do you have the keys or are we gonna hot-wire this thing?" I ask.
"Garth had the keys." She replies.
"Hotwiring it is." I smirk.
Asphodel takes a step back as I hope enchantments won't stop me from breaking this window. I put a piece of cardboard I find on the ground against the window of the car. I look around for something heavy.
"Would this work?" Asphodel points to a cinderblock just from my sight.
I walk towards the back of the car and pick the cinderblock up. I barely can lift this thing, let alone throw it. I sigh.
"Asphodel, help me toss this into the window." I say.
"You wanna really do this, huh?" She asks as she approaches me.
Asphodel grabs one end of the block so we can treat it like a swing. Back and forth. Again, back and forth.
"Ready?" Asphodel says as we swing back a last time.
"Go!" I say as we launch the block forward into the cardboard.
The window shatters into the car. We manage to prevent the glass from flying at us, thankfully. I walk to the car and let my hand in to open the doors to the front of the car.
"Sweet." Asphodel says as she runs to the other side of the car.
"Saw it in a movie once." I say.
"Righteous." She says back as she manages the cinderblock from the car seat.
"Got any magic that will clean all this glass?" I point to the sparkling glass coated seats.
"Yeah, actually. I would stand away from the open doors." She says.
I go behind the car and lean into the trunk. The car creaks when I shift into it. I watch as Asphodel pulls out her wand and aims it at the car seats.
"Ventis!" Asphodel calls out.
a shimmering tunnel of wind billows through the openings. Sparkling dust flies out the drivers seat and into the air. The spell fades and the remaining sparkles fall like snow.
"That's very pretty for something so aggressive." I say.
"I agree."
I rush around the car to the driver's door. I get into the driver's seat and jam the end of my wand into the panels' crease to pop it off. Asphodel gets into the passenger's seat. I pry the panel off and expose the wires.
"Got nail clippers?" I ask.
Asphodel begins to search her bags and self. She takes a few minutes of searching, but hands me some clippers. She sighs and shakes her head.
"How are these gonna help?" Asphodel asks me.
"Watch and you'll learn." I say.
I slide under the wires for an easier time to see them. I take the brown and red wires and snip them with the nail clippers. I then cross the wires repeatedly until I hear the engine roaring with life. I twist the wires together again and get into my seat. We both close the doors.
"Seen that in a movie too?" Asphodel asks.
"My ex boyfriend used to lift cars for the mob. You learn some things." I laugh.
I pull the car to the road and come to a stop. I can't figure out which way to go. Asphodel stares at me for a moment.
"How do we get to Europe from here?" I ask.
"Let's start by getting to Manhattan." She suggests.
"That's this way, right?" I point left. "That will take us to the interstate highway, right?"
"I am pretty sure. Maybe we need a map." She laughs lightly.
It's weird, even though I know she is my sister. It really feels like we are related. I always grew up alone, so I never would have felt this. In a way, I'm grateful.
"Hey, Asphodel?" I look at her for a moment. I still keep focus on the road ahead of us as we pull out onto the road.
"Yeah, Annie?" she replies.
"Was it weird knowing you had a sister but couldn't speak to them?" I ask.
"Ouch. Straight to the tough questions and we aren't even on the road for an hour." Asphodel groans. "Yea, it was hard. Even if it was for your own good." She sighs.
"I see."
The silence between us gets discomforting in next to no time. I slap the radio dial in hopes it works. Nothing happens.
"Oh, this is going to be a long trip." Asphodel says.
"You're telling me." I reply. "I'm getting an auxiliary cord for the trip. I need tunnage."
"Touche!" Asphodel raises her arm for a high five. I awkwardly high five here.
She points the directions to the gas bar from here. I don't know my way around this town like she does. Hell, I don't even know where I am to begin with. It's a matter of a few sets of lights and corners to get there.
"Should we fuel up?" I ask.
"Well, it IS a car." She replies.
"I don't know how everything works with your magical lifestyle okay?" I huff.
"The enchantment makes it drive on water." She says.
"OOOOHHHH!!!" I shout as if it was obvious now.
"What else were you expecting?" she asks.
"I don't know, invisibility or flight?" I reply.
"Kids watch to many movies of the eaters world." She sighs and shakes her head with disbelief.
"Oh, whatever." I say as I get out of the car and pop open the gas tank.
I hear the passenger door close. She must have gone inside for the map and an auxiliary cord. I begin to fill the tank. Then it dawns on me, who is paying for this?
The gas pump stops. I get into the car and pull into a parking space in front of the shop. I see Asphodel grabbing snacks and drinks. She is preparing for the road trip. It's going to probably be a couple of days before we hit the coast. I begin to wonder about how long that may be.
Asphodel breaks my thought by closing the car door. She puts some bags into the back seat. Before any time has a chance to pass by, she has the auxiliary cord in my face.
"I got everything we are gonna need." She says.
"That's awesome." I say as I grab the cord to hook it up to my phone.
My rock playlist starts up and I smile wide. Asphodel seems a bit confused by the music. It's almost like she never heard rock before. I start the car back up.
"What is this?" Asphodel asks.
I back the car up and pull us out onto the road again. Asphodel adjusts and pulls the map out. I sigh and shake my head.
"It's called rock. What do you listen to?" I ask.
"Well, Mystics music really." She says.
"What's that?" I ask.
"It's a song a coven sings for a spell result." She explains. "Sometimes you need many witches to do one thing. Singing helps harmonize witches." She adds.
"Kind of like a siren?"
"Kind of, but you don't have to always hear the spell." She admits.
"How can you ever tell?" I ask.
"If you are lucky, you'll notice something that breaks it." She says.
"So, what kind of stuff can be done with this?" I ask more questions. The music plays in the background and we don't even notice it.
"You can trap someone in an illusion, I suppose." She says.
"Like a hallucination?"
"Yeah, only thing is, it's caused by an enchantment or spell..." Asphodel drifts off for a moment.
"What's up?" I check on her.
"I could have sworn I saw that turn off before." She says.
"Oh Asphodel, maybe you're paranoid because you're talking about magic?" I try to cause a different thought pattern.
"You may be right." She says.
"Exactly."
"Although, I know we just pulled out of that gas bar!" She says, shocked.
I stare at the gas bar we pulled out of earlier. I pull us back in. Asphodel stares at me. I can't do anything but silently stare back. The rock music in the background switches to a slow rock song.
"Okay. What do we do now?" I state. I can't even question anything, just speak my thoughts.
"Someone doesn't want us to leave." Asphodel says seriously.
"Who would want that?" I ask.
"I'm not sure." Her reply is hollow.