“So, crossroads on the train tracks?” Kim huffed as the taxi pulled off. “That sounds supernatural as fuck!”
Since Ed had decided to wait until they got moving to start talking, he’d just sort of silently let her pile in after him after it became clear she wasn’t going anywhere.
He peeked back at the school through the rearview, other than a couple cars entering from the westside it looked surprisingly peaceful, and empty, and all around just completely ordinary and very non-magical.
In fact, if Ed didn’t know any better he might have said it felt almost suspiciously easy getting away from the place.
“Sorry, I lied, we’re going to the mall. Southcenter.” He showed her his phone as they pulled around the corner. The school disappeared out of the mirrors. “Wasn’t sure who could be listening.”
Kim opened her mouth as if to say something, then appeared to think better of it after a second. “Right. Ok. Are you a wizard?”
“No.” Ed decided to be honest with her. Well, somewhat honest. “Mr. Garry found me in the halls, he had an eye tattoo on his palm, it blinked, and when I reacted to it he knocked me out, then I woke up in an empty classroom with sparkle boy, evil eye, prince chadwick chadstein of all things and of course Mr. Garry just casually explaining some magical balloony like it was just another Tuesday or something.”
Ed sucked in a deep breath as he finished. “Yeah. Just another Tuesday.”
“And you just… got out of that.” Kim squinted at him. “Somehow.”
“I gambled. I got lucky, look I don’t know. What I do know is that I don’t have jack shit compared to them.” He hesitated. To be honest, he didn’t actually know if telling Kim he had a system of all things was a very good idea, in fact it felt like a distinctly bad idea. “Ok, no that’s a bit of a lie. If they’re nearby I can sort of sense them.”
“Ok.” Kim seemed to slump in relief. “So they’re not actually chasing us here. If they were, you would know.” She rolled her head back, tossing her arms out over the seatbacks. “God that’s a weight off my shoulders.”
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Ed frowned at her. “Actually, now that you mention it, why did you come back?”
Not that he wasn’t glad. Having an extra set of hands, one he was starting to believe couldn’t actually be sensed by the Garry gang, was something he felt might be very useful going forwards.
She doubled forwards with a short laugh. Then when she pulled her head back up with a breath she appeared to wipe an eye. “Actually, if you would believe it, it was Mr. Garry for me too of all things. Pretty much the instant I rang for the police he like showed up around the corner. He was like hella sus too, looking straight at me and all that so I straight up bolted.”
She looked over at him from her seat. Her short brown hair sort of fell around her face like a sort of frame, button nose and freckles, while he’d never noticed it before her forehead looked just a little bit too large next to her bangs and suddenly Ed was struck by the fact that despite being almost as tall as him and probably quite a bit more muscular, she looked just so incredibly small in the moment.
“51 my ass,” She blustered shakily. “This is like scary clown in the sewers level shit.”
Ok, Ed thought to himself. So she was probably followed. That meant they knew he’d left by the cab. Not the end of the world as he had given out his supposed location to begin with.
“Alright, so here’s my plan. I gave these guys a note to meet me at the mall. We’re going to go in there and I’ll be the bait since they’re able to track me.”
“They can track you.” Kim said blankly.
“I think it’s more like they trace magic in general and I’m guessing I’m leaking it like a cracked oil rig or something cause I have zero idea what I’m doing.”
“And I’m not magical.” She sounded a little disappointed for some reason.
“Uh, I mean we can trade?” At the moment, being straight off the radar seemed leagues better to him than anything else. It meant she could probably just run away and they’d be none the wiser. Or maybe just let them mind wipe her, that sounded like something they’d do. “Actually, you could probably just go back there and let them mind wipe you. To be honest I was kind of panicking before but now that I think about it they seemed to go out of their way to leave bystanders unharmed.”
“But would you bet your life on it?” Kim prodded, somewhat incredulously.
“Ok fair point.” Ed conceded. The cab bumped as they hit the highway and Ed checked the map. “Right." He pursed his lips. "So here’s the plan.”