Chapter 2: To Minnesota

I dashed up the stairs as quick as my legs would carry me, taking the steps two at a time. Not knowing how long I would be gone was a problem, so I simply grabbed my largest piece of luggage and started throwing most of my clothes in it. Not knowing what the weather was going to be like up north was another issue. All I knew was that it would probably be quite a bit cooler than it was in the south. I didn't really have any kind of cold weather clothing, so all I could do is pack what very few long sleeves I did have along with my t-shirts and a light jacket. If I needed to, I would buy some warmer clothes in Minnesota. I buried my hidden blade and my steel baton under the poorly packed, not even close to folded clothes and drug the whole thing downstairs, leaving it by the door. Dashing back upstairs once more, I grabbed a small travel bag and shoved all of the essentials in it. Toothpaste and toothbrush, hairbrush, and some hygiene products. I did my normal pocket check for my phone, keys, and face mask, my other masks were packed away in my essentials bag, and walked out the door, locking it behind me. I took a moment to look at my house as I got in my car, not sure when I would be back. It was much the same feeling as when I went to New Orleans with Rebecca.

I made one stop before I hit the road and that was a small gas station. I topped off the tank in my car and bought a 12 pack of my favorite energy drink. I was determined to only stop for gas and food, so I was ready to put enough caffeine in my system to bring down an elephant.

It was about three hours into the trip when I started wishing that I had someone in the car with me. Not that I was tire, because I wasn't, the energy drink that I had pounded was ensuring that. Road trips were always just better with someone along for the ride. I had the top down on my car and the night air whipping through my hair felt great, but it would have been so much better with some conversation or someone to car sing with.

Four and a half hours into the long drive I realized a mistake that I had made. I had pulled off of the interstate for gas and food. I guess I had become accustomed to some of the fast food places being open 24 hours a day before the whole global pandemic that was happening, but that wasn't the case now. Every place that I drive by had their lights off and signs saying "closed" on the doors. The inside of the gas station was open fortunately, so after I filled the car up, I popped inside and grabbed enough snacks to hold over until the morning. I didn't like overindulging in things like junk food, but it was my only option at the moment.

I chugged another energy drink and tried to call Rebecca as I got back on the road, but her phone went straight to voice mail. I assumed that she was sleeping already, which surprised me slightly as it was only a little after one in the morning and she had generally been a late night person when we were staying together.

The next time that I stopped for gas was when the sun started to come up, and I was beginning to feel a little drowsy, so another energy drink it was. According to my GPS, I still had about 16 hours of driving ahead of me. Maybe a little less if I sped and didn't hit much traffic, but I knew that was unlikely. Morning traffic was about to be a major thing, and I was still determined to not stop for anything other than gas or food. I found a coffee shop that I had never seen before in the south and stopped. The line was long already, and they were, as was becoming the new normal, only letting in two people at a time. No one was allowed to sit inside. I bought a breakfast sandwich and a latte. It was the most delicious latte I had ever had, and I cursed the south for not having a single location of the shop. I looked up the name of the shop on my phone and saw that it was a midwestern chain based out of Minnesota. I guess I figured out where I would be getting my morning coffee once I arrived.

I started to feel more awake as it got later in the morning and the sun continued to rise overhead. I put that down to the fact that it was actually daytime and not the middle of the night, or maybe it was simply the dangerous amounts of caffeine and sugar coursing through my body.

As the day continued on, I started to understand why a lot of people preferred driving across the country instead of flying. True, I had never done either until now, but I had to imagine with flying you didn't really see anything. While driving, most of what I saw was nothing but lines and lines of trees as I passed through rural parts of the country, but on the occasions that I came up on major cities, it was both beautiful and majestic. I could also tell that I was getting further north when I started spotting patches of snow from early snowfall alongside the road. I was hoping that I would experience snowfall in Minnesota. Being from the south meant that snow was a foreign thing to me. I could not remember a single instance of it snowing at home.

As the day passed and it turned to night once more, I knew I was getting closer to my destination and only part of that was my GPS telling me that I was less than two hours away. I stopped to fill up my car and the minute I stepped outside I felt chill bumps pop up all over my arms. I quickly unzipped my luggage and pulled out the light jacket I had. There was nothing that I could do about my legs though. According to my car, it was a brisk 36 degrees outside, much colder than it usually ever got down south. I was most certainly going to have to buy clothes up here.

It was after ten at night when I finally took an exit off of the interstate into Minneapolis. Twenty-two plus hours of driving and I was both physically and emotionally exhausted. I silently vowed to myself that if I ever had to make a drive like that again, which I knew I would have to, that I would get a hotel.

The city looked beautiful as I drove through the downtown area, following my GPS as it led me down multiple side streets. The temperature was continuing to drop as I left the downtown area and found myself driving into an area that looked abandoned. Houses were half falling apart and no lights could be seen. The few standing streetlights were all out, making the entire street look haunted, It was this street that the GPS was telling me that I needed to be at.

"What the actual hell," I said as I pulled up in front of the house that the GPS told me to stop at. The house looked more dilapidated than the others. The roof looked like it was at risk of falling in at any moment.

I sat in my car for several minutes simply staring at the house through the darkness, thinking that there must be a mistake. I must have put the wrong address into the GPS. This place had obviously been abandoned for many years. I checked the text on my phone and confirmed that it was indeed the correct address. Finally, I got out of my car and pulled my baton out of my bag, in case I was attacked. I shot off a text to Rebecca, simply stating that I was here and leaned against my car, hyper aware of my surroundings and constantly glancing around for anything or anyone that looked like they would try to harm me.

It was a few minutes before I saw or heard any sign of life. A creaking sound that seemed to echo through the night air came from the door as it opened. I gripped my baton tightly in my hand and kept my eyes on the door. A moment later someone stepped out into the cold night. It was Rebecca and I felt my face break into a huge smile.

I sprinted up to Rebecca and threw my arms around her. The feelings of pure joy at seeing her again was indescribable. "It's so great to see you again," I said, unable top stop smiling.

"You too!" Rebecca exclaimed, looking me in the face like she couldn't believe that I was here. "How are you here so soon?" She asked. "We didn't expect you until tomorrow at the earliest, or maybe even the day after."

"Well, I left right after you called, and..."

"Don't tell me that you drove all night and through the entire day?" She asked, sounding shocked.

"You said you needed me," I replied. "What is this place anyway?"

"Well yeah, but I didn't mean for your crazy ass to drive all night and day on no sleep," Rebecca said. "You must be exhausted."

I couldn't deny that one. Despite all of the coffee and energy drinks that I had poured down my throat in the past 24 hours, my body felt heavy and my brain felt foggy. I had gone longer than this without sleep a fair few times before, but this was the first time that I had pushed myself to this extreme. I didn't realize just how mentally exhausting that driving could be. "I could sleep, I suppose," I said, once again looking at the sad looking dilapidated house. "This place though?"

"Yeah, it's pretty rough," Rebecca said. "It's a safehouse though. The exterior may look like shit, but the inside is comfortable enough, and the basement has everything we could ever need. The brotherhood took this place when Abstergo built a building up here."

"And I'm assuming that you've been doing something involving Abstergo?" I asked, assuming that Rebecca was undercover. She had told me about other times in the past that she had infiltrated the company that the Templars used as a cover.

"Come on, we'll talk inside," Rebecca said opening the front door of the house to let me in.

The inside of the house was much nicer than the exterior. True, that it still looked run down and parts of it looked to be falling apart, with holes in the walls, but it was still nicer than some of the places that I had lived in growing up. It was fairly clean and most of the surfaces looked to have been dusted quite recently. A small kitchen sat off to the right of the entrance with a moderately sized living room off to the left. A narrow set of stairs had been built towards the back of the house. I wasn't sure where they led, but I guessed that it was to bedrooms.

Rebecca led me towards the back of the house and underneath the stairs. A small door that you would not see unless you were actively looking for it sat in the wall. She opened it and motioned me through. "Down here."

"I missed you so much," I said as I walked through the opened and found myself on a narrow staircase leading down. The stairs were made of metal and had spots of heavy rust in some places, but they looked more than sturdy enough.

"I've missed you too," Rebecca said as she followed me down the stairs. Though it was dark, I could tell she was smiling as she said it, just from the tone in her voice. "So, how have things been? I know that we haven't really been able to talk much."

"Been bored," I said honestly as we reached the bottom of the stairs and came to another door, this one made of a heavy looking metal. "Which is to be expected with everything going on in the world right now."

Rebecca stopped and squeezed in front of me. Our bodies were as close as possible without being pressed together. It was making my heart beat ever so slightly faster. I wanted to hug her once again and not let go this time. "True," she said quietly, "but I dare say that life up here will be anything but boring for you." She had a smile on her face that told me I was in for some action. "Come on, let's introduce you to Shaun."

I wasn't sure who Shaun was, but I nodded, and Rebecca pushed open the metal door. Through the door was an extremely spacious room with walls and a ceiling made of thick concrete. Several desks and chairs were placed throughout the room with a plush looking sofa shoved against the wall in the corner. Wires and cables were strewn across the floor, running to some of the most expensive looking computers that I had ever seen. Sitting at one of the chairs, his eyes staring intently at a computer screen and his fingers typing away quickly on the keyboard was a man that I had never met.

"Madi, meet Shaun Hastings," Rebecca said as the man in the chair stopped whatever he was doing and spun around to face me. "Shaun, Madison Gratton."

"Glad to finally have you here," the man said standing up and offering me his hand to shake. The first thing I noticed was his accent. Shaun was quite clearly English. I took his hand and gave it a firm squeeze. "Maybe now Rebecca will shush up about you for more than 30 minutes. All I've heard about is how great you are and how amazing you were in New Orleans."

"Oh, shut the hell up Shaun," Rebecca said, and I laughed, but felt heat rise in my cheeks.

"Oh, come on now Rebecca," Shaun said still teasing her. "I'm sure Madison doesn't mind hearing about how much you talked about her.

"I swear, I'm gonna kick your ass Hastings," Rebecca said and this time it was Shaun who started laughing. It was clear that these two had known each other for quite a long time and were close friends.

"In all seriousness," Shaun said, looking from Rebecca to myself, "it really is great to meet you. From everything I've heard, you did do wonderfully recovering the staff and I have full confidence that you'll be a great asset to us up here as well."

"Nice to meet you as well," I said, doing my best to stifle a yawn.

"Business can wait until tomorrow," Rebecca said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I know your crazy ass has to be exhausted. Driving for almost 24 hours straight like that. Shaun, why don't you take care of her car? Come on Madi, I'll show you to your room."

Rebecca led me out of the room and back up the stairs without me really knowing who Shaun was. I guess that would have to wait until tomorrow. Up another set of stairs led to a hallway with two doors on one side and one on the other. Towards the end was an open door with a little light spilling out into the hallway. I glimpsed a toilet which told me that it was a bathroom, probably the only one in the house, I thought to myself.

The bedroom that Rebecca showed me into looked nice, simple, but rather nice. A dresser against one wall, a TV on a stand against another, and a bed large enough to comfortably fit two with nightstands on either side. The sight of the bed made me realize just how tired I was, how much I had pushed my physical and mental state. I slipped off my shoes and socks and flopped down onto the bed. It felt beyond comfortable, despite that the mattress being one of the older types with actual springs in it. I knew if I simply closed my eyes that I would be asleep within minutes, but I wasn't ready yet.

I glanced over at Rebecca who was looked to be trying to hold in a smile from the doorway. "Hang with me for a bit?" I asked, patting the spot on the bed next to me.

"As if you even need to ask," she said while walking to the other side of the bed and sitting down. "I still think you are crazy for making that trip in one day, but I am so happy to have you here, and not just because of the work...because I really did miss you. Missed our late nights just watching movies and shit like that."

"The house has been lonely," I replied. "Especially with this damn pandemic. Can't even really go out shopping or anything like that. Speaking of which," I went on "I am going to need to find clothes store up here. I don't have anything for Minnesota weather."

"Already taken care of," Rebecca said, motioning to the dresser against the wall. "I took the liberty of ordering some things that I think you'll like…plus, I could always just cuddle up to you to keep you warm," she said with mischievous smile"

My breath got caught in my throat as I looked away, knowing I was blushing hard. I couldn't tell whether she was just screwing with me or not, but a huge part of me was hoping that she was serious. I had never really had any kind of romantic feelings for anyone before. It was just not something that I had been interested in and didn't even realize just how I was starting to feel about Rebecca until she had left to come up here. I don't even think that it was me just being lonely back home, it was that I didn't feel like I wanted anyone around except for Rebecca and now that I was around her again, I felt like everything was right. I didn't even care about the age difference between us, that didn't matter at all. I was approaching 20 anyway.

"It's cute when you're embarrassed," Rebecca said, gently turning my face to hers and laughing. "You'll get over that embarrassment at some point."

I felt like that I wanted to kiss her. Rebecca's eyes locked onto mine gave me that desire, but I also knew that I was too much of a coward to actually do it. I had never kissed anyone before, had never really wanted to, but something about Rebecca was bringing it out in me. "Movie?" I mumbled trying my best to get some of the thought that I was having out of my head.

"Of course," Rebecca said, reaching across me to grab the television remote from the stand. "We don't have cable, but what we do have is streaming services. Not that I actually think you will make it more than twenty minutes or so into whatever we put on."

I knew that Rebecca was right. My eyelids already felt like they were weighed down by a sack of rocks. I stretched out as Rebecca pressed a few buttons on the remote and put on a movie. It was one that I knew she and I had seen before, I had personally watched it three times in the past couple of months, but I didn't mind as it was good every time.

Rebecca casually put her arm around my head and without even thinking about it I leaned into her side. Guess she wasn't kidding about that. I could feel myself blushing a little, but I simply tried to ignore it that and focus on how nice that this felt. I could feel myself fading as Rebecca laughed softly at some completely over the top car chase scene in the movie. I was trying my hardest to stay up for the movie, but it was no use. I closed my eyes and that was it.

Witchy's Note:

Well that's another chapter down. I don't have much to say here other than I hope that you guys are enjoying this as much as I am enjoying writing it. As I sit here typing this, chapter 1 has not even been posted yet. I've decided to wait until I get the first three chapters written before I put this up, just to give me a decent turnaround time. This chapter was originally intended to be split into two, but I ultimately decided against it as it would have led to two really short chapters as opposed to one moderate length one. We're about to really get into it on the next chapter and I cannot wait to get started. I can also promise that the next couple are going to be a lot longer than the first two.

Chapter song:

When It's Love

Van Halen

I decided to go with this song as the first song of this story for a couple of reasons. First, it is one of my favorites by Van Halen (RIP Eddie) and second, because it seems kind of fitting considering what seems to be building up between Madison and Rebecca.