Chapter 23. Space

the 7th of March, 2008, Location: Glennallen, Alaska

"Now what?" Laura asked from her place on the thick fallen trunk. She had a permanent frown painted on her face and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. Really she wasn't the only one annoyed here. It wasn't my fault that this place had barely any cars passing through. And this fucking snow

Taking a deep sigh, I shot another warming charm at the girl, "As I said ten minutes ago, we wait. Sooner or later someone will come, and trust me I will stop them by force if I must." Over thirty minutes of sitting by an empty road could make anyone anxious. And with the promise of civilization, both of us wanted to get the hell away from here as fast as possible.

The small girl scowled and released the claws on her left hand. The shadowy blades glinted in the rays of the sun as they slashed the bark repeatedly, creating cut after cut. The wood wasn't even a challenge for Obscurus enhanced claws. I had to wonder what would be capable of stopping them in their current state.

"Having fun?" I quirked an eyebrow, my lips rising into a small smirk. I could reprimand her for using them without a reason, but as long as she wasn't complaining, I could let it slip. Besides, she needed to get familiar with those claws, just in case.

The little brat, that got fierier with every minute of her newly obtained freedom, retraced her claws and shot me a grin, "Jealous that I received something useful and not some glowing sparks of unknown energy?"

Cheeky bugger. Huffing, I acted like the mature child I was and just turned away, hiding a smile. The few days in the wild, away from the grey walls of Hydra's base did a lot of good for the girl. I knew that it was mostly the excitement of being free once more, but it was better to see her smile and laugh than trash around and cry in her sleep, something that happened every night.

It was only natural after what we went through. You didn't recover from an ordeal like that in one night, and our nightmares made it clear that we wouldn't be forgetting about Hydra's hospitality for a long time. At least I had Occlumency and past experiences that somewhat lessened the impact of those dreams, but Laura had no such thing. And so every night I was left holding her shaking frame as she relived every single thing Whitehall did to her.

You better be dead or you will regret the day you were born when I find you again.

"Logan," Laura shook my shoulder, pausing my murderous thoughts. "Something is coming."

Snapping my gaze back to the road, I grinned as car lights flashed in distance. Finally. I jumped to my feet and approached the side of the road, my hand already raised, waving at the oncoming car. "Well, our transport is here. Come on."

Laura shrugged and joined me, her face becoming the perfect mask of indifference. "Won't they ask any questions? After all, we are only two kids, alone in the middle of nowhere."

I chuckled, "Aren't you forgetting something?" Laura offered me no answer apart from a blank look. A grunt left my lips, "Ruin my fun, why don't you... Magic, Laura, magic. After everything I told you about it, you think that I can't solve a little problem of a few unwanted questions. Bah, you wound me."

Offensive mind magic might not be my strong side, but I could confound a mundane person, even with a poorly matched wand. Or so I hoped so. If the spell didn't work, then well, I had a few more drastic options to make a person comply. I wasn't letting them drive away without us inside that car.

"It better work," Laura murmured and turned back to the blue SUV that just stopped next to us. The window of the passenger seat rolled down, revealing the face of a middle-aged man that watched us with wide eyes.

"Dear God, are you alright children? For a moment I thought I was hallucinating when I saw you at the side of the road. Why are you here alone? Where are your parents?" The man fired off question after question. I doubt that it was the best way to deal with two young children, but what did I know.

Rolling my eyes, I raised my borrowed wand and swept it in an arc while focusing on the proper spell. "Confundo." The man shook his head, eyes becoming glazed, "You won't ask any more questions and just take us to the nearest town on your way."

"Get in, get in. You must be freezing," The man suddenly spoke with a grin as the spell took effect.

I gave Laura the smuggest smirk I could muster and opened the door to the back seats, "Ladies first." The look she gave me almost burned, but she still climbed in. I jumped after her and quickly fired another confundus to make sure that the man would answer my questions and just focus on the road ahead.

"We are near Glennallen, a small town in Alaska a good few hours away from the Canadian border," he said when questioned about our current position. To be honest, I hoped that we were already in Canada as I really didn't fancy passing the border two times on my way to New York. And now I just got my confirmation that we had a long journey before us.

"And where are you headed?" I followed with another question.

"Valdez, my young friend. My nephew's birthday is coming and my whole family is gathering in our home town. I still got a few hours of driving before me, but what you don't do for family, eh?" He chuckled.

I had no clue what Valdez even was, much less Glenallen. I might have been to the US quite often, but Alaska? No thanks, I had enough snow in Russia. Fucking Hydra and their bases in the middle of nowhere.

"Do you maybe have a map?" Please say yes, please say yes.

"Of course," the man boomed, one hand rummaging through the glove box. "Ah, here you go," he said, handing me the folded map. "I bought it not that long ago so it should be mostly relevant."

I nodded and unfolded the map of the western part of North America. Laura leaned from her seat to take a closer look, "What are you looking for?"

Pointing at Alaska, I whispered, "Look for Glenallen and let me know if you find it. I have to figure out the best way for us to the south. Being in Alaska will make it a bit harder, but nothing that magic and some time can't fix."

Alaska barely had any roads so we just had to scan them inch by inch, searching for the small city that was our destination. We would definitely need to buy another map for Canada. My knowledge of roads in 2008 was straight up lacking, not that it was any better when I died in my previous life, but whatever.

"Here," Laura murmured, putting her finger on the map.

I frowned as I traced the road to the Canadian border. A few hours indeed and with the current weather condition, it could take even longer. Valdez, the home city of our driver, was another option. It should have a port with its location being by the water, but I didn't trust my abilities enough to sneak us onto a correct ship. Taking the long way through Canada was a much better and safer idea.

"It seems we will be on the road for longer than I expected..."

Laura furrowed her brows, "Where are we going anyway? I know that Britain is our target, but where are we going now? You said it yourself that you can't magic us away across the ocean."

"New York," I answered, chuckling when she tilted her head. "I hope to use one of the Headquarters of Masters of Mystic Arts to get us across the pond. You could say that I am familiar with their leader. Though I can't tell if they won't just turn us away."

It had been a while since my talk with the Ancient One and maybe, just maybe she had changed her opinion about me. The leader of Masters of Mystic Arts might be a bit sketchy, but she could help us with getting back to Britain. And maybe lend us some advice about the Obscurus inside Laura. And even if she didn't, transporting us to the UK was more than enough.

"And if they will? What then? Maybe a plane, I always wanted to fly in a plane," Her head fell low, voice barely a whisper. "Daddy once promised me that we would go on a vacation far away and we would need to fly there."

I grimaced and hugged Laura to my side, "I will see what we can do about that. It might take some work, but taking a plane to the UK is definitely an option if nothing else works. Still, I would rather use the Masters' way of travel, especially when you consider the crowds in the airports. I can fool one or two mundanes, but an entire building? No way."

Laura nodded and leaned on my shoulder as I continued scanning the map. According to the clock on the dashboard, it took another twenty minutes before I noticed some building on the horizon. I quickly folded the map and addressed the driver, "Are we here?"

The man nodded, "Almost."

Great.

Wiping out the memory of our driver proved harder than I initially thought. Mundane mind or not, messing with memories required a lot of focus and skill that I didn't possess. As such, I was pretty sure that the poor man drove away with a very painful case of headache after I pretty much wiped out his memory with the precision of a sledgehammer. Not a pretty job...

"Are you sure we should have just let him drive away?" Laura's voice came from my right as we approached the gas station of Glenallen.

I shrugged, scanning the small building before us, "He will be fine. Don't worry. Now, remember, let me do the talking. In small communities like this people tend to be curious and I can't just confound almost everyone we meet. Other wizards might find us if I do that and I don't want to explain why I'm breaking the Statute of Secrecy left and right."

Laura nodded, "So how do you plan to get anyone to help us?"

"Why my dear," I grinned, the borrowed wand tightly gripped in my hand within the sleeve of an overgrown jacket. "I only said that I won't confound almost everyone. As long as it won't put us in danger then I can't care less about avoiding using magic. Now come on and remember what I have told you."

One camera directed at the entrance and the fuel pumps, and probably one more inside. Let's try to get out without making a scene. Glancing at Laura, I grimaced slightly. She wasn't in public in years. I feel a lot of Oblivation practice incoming...

Entering the small shop of the gas station, we split, with Laura going to look for some snacks and me heading straight for the shopkeeper. "Hi! Do you maybe have a roadmap of southwestern Canada and Northern US?"

The young brunette behind the counter lowered her phone and looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "I haven't seen you in the city before. Where are your parents, brat?"

Rude much? I took a quick breath and smiled, "Our dad is checking our car in the lot down the road. He says something broke, but I think he is paranoid like always."

The woman shrugged and went back to her phone, "Whatever. Maps are in the corner to the right."

Then why the hell are you even asking! First, you ask me for parents and now a simple explanation completely eliminated your concern? If this continues like that then I won't even need to use magic... Shaking my head, I moved to the corner, the entire shelf of maps waiting there. Let's see. For Alaska, you have a lot of fucking maps.

I took the two I needed and scanned the shop, searching for Laura. She was still rummaging between the shelves grabbing and then putting away snack after snack. Chuckling, I approached the girl, "Can't decide?"

Laura almost jumped, the glint of shadowy claws peeking through the skin of her hands. "Don't do that," she growled, her eyes drilling a hole in my body. "And I'm not sure if we need any of that. Wouldn't it be better to save the money?"

I sighed and ruffled Laura's hair, "Take whatever you want. The wizards had enough money in their wallets to give us a few days before I will need to think about some alternatives. So come on, we don't have time."

The little girl looked me in the eyes for a moment before nodding and scooping a handful of snacks from the shelves around us. "That's all," she smiled.

Another round back to the rude shopkeeper and we left the station with our pockets full of snacks. Laura didn't even waste a moment and shredded the wrapping of a chocolate bar. In three bites the entire candy was gone and I couldn't help but snicker at the proud smile Laura wore.

"What?" she snapped, smile still in place.

I chuckled again, "Nothing, absolutely nothing."

Laura narrowed her eyes, but let the matter rest as we continued walking by the road. We kept our faces hidden by with hoodies I transfigurated earlier, but in moments like this, I really regretted not learning more about glamors. They would certainly be helpful right about now.

We continued to trek through the small city, scanning every building in hopes of finding a good place to rest. We kept away from any searching gazes of locals that for sure would like to question two unknown kids appearing out of nowhere in their city. At least without seeing our faces straight away, they maybe thought that we were some local kids that just took a walk. Yeah right...

"This should do fine," I said, nodding to the long, two-story building with a motel sign on it. "Again, just let me do the talking."

Walking into the small reception, I quickly threw my gaze across the room, searching for the security camera that had to be there. The little lie might have worked on the gas station's worker, but there was no way we were getting a room as two kids. There, I noted, glancing at the camera above the entrance door. Pretty bad position so it shouldn't cause a problem.

The hand with the wand raised a bit, just enough to be pointed at the elderly man reading a book behind the counter. "Confundo," I whispered and followed with a simple command, "You will treat me as an adult."

The book fell from the man's hands, waking him up from the magic-induced confusion. "Oh, my apologies. I didn't notice you coming. How can I help you?"

Maybe I'm not as hopeless with mind magic as Salazar thought.

Clearing my throat, I gave the man a smile as I glanced at Laura, "Hello. I and my daughter are just passing through the city, but the long journey took a toll on her and we would like to rest for the day. If you could give us one room with two beds I would be most grateful."

I ignored Laura's frown and waited for the old man to stop scrutinizing us with his eyes. "Of course," he said slowly, "I will just need the standard documents and I will have a key for you in a moment."

Right, documents. My bad. Another confundus took care of that one and soon we were back outside, walking towards the room at the end of the building.

"Two times? What happened to not overusing magic?"

"I don't want to hear it miss Pokerface," I grinned as Laura huffed and turned away.

A smile made its way to my face as I glanced at Laura's sleeping form. Even though it was still bright outside, she fell asleep immediately after taking a hot shower and then hitting the sack. Thirty minutes passed and yet she didn't even move an inch. I knew it wouldn't last, that sooner or later the nightmare would come, but for now, I was happy that our new situation at least let Laura get more normal sleep.

As for me?

For minutes I had been sitting on the second bed, the blue-green energy crackling across my fingers. What the hell are you? Summoning the energy to my fingers didn't do a thing. It didn't destroy anything, didn't create anything, it just was, illuminating the room in a soft glow. Did you really teleport me or was it accidental magic?

Only the blue-green fissure in the reality supported the idea that it was indeed this energy that made me teleport in Hydra's base. Though I felt its weak connection to my magic so maybe there were some similarities between the two. What if I do this...

Standing up, I focused on the spot right in front of the door to our room. Every speck of dust, the scratches on the wooden floor, and the stains from some kind of juice. I memorized them all, forcing this image to the forefront of my mind. I saw without seeing as my eyes closed. The mysterious energy stirred within my body and I pushed it outwards, the quiet sizzle filling my ears.

And then just like with magic, I gave the energy intent connected to the picture in my mind. Come on!

I gasped, almost falling to the ground as I staggered forward. The world around me spun and yet I couldn't help but notice my different position, right in front of the door. A quick look behind confirmed the existence of a small blue-green rift hanging in the air.

Alright, not so useless anymore.

And that would be it for today's chapter. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.

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