As we returned to the safehouse, I found myself wondering how long we could go before running into our first unexpected twist. The answer turned out to be not long, because the door wouldn’t open, no matter what we tried.
“I don’t remember you locking the door behind us,” Maguire commented. “Is there anyone else who has access to this building?”
“The Jacks do have some friends who are allowed to enter, but I doubt it was any of them that locked us out.” I gave the door knob one last shake, just in case this was a prank. Nothing happened.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean this is part of the challenge, and the harder the challenge the bigger the boon, which means we have a lot of work to do.” I started off towards the part of the building that I was decently confident held the garage, hoping that we wouldn’t have to go hunting through a parking garage to find our ride. Maguire followed a few steps behind me, practically radiating with confusion. “Sometimes they decide to ditch subtlety when they want to get a point across, and they haven’t exactly had a lot of people to mess with in the past year.”
“I take it this little scavenger hunt is going to take us outside of the city,” he said.
“Looks like it. I have no doubt there is a logic behind it beyond it being entertaining to the Originals, but I’d rather start puzzling that out after we have hit the road. They do this, sometimes. They give us no choice but to go on a little adventure that almost always pays off in the end. Aha, there is a garage!”
As if in cue, the door started to roll open, revealing a well-kept SUV. I went to the drivers side and let myself in, Maguire following suit on the passenger side.
“Do we need to go and pack our things or will we have to buy the necessities along the way?” he asked.
“Depends. Check in the back, will you? I am going to see if there’s a clue to where we are supposed to be going.”
Maguire turned and craned his neck to see behind his seat while I started the car, tapping on the display to pull up the GPS. It already had an address plugged in, which simplified some things, though the time it would take to get there made me a little nervous. We didn’t have a lot of time to waste and I had no doubt we would run into all sorts of roadblocks along the way.
“Either someone else was planning a trip recently or someone went into the house, packed our things, then locked us out,” Maguire said, flopping back into his seat. “I see both of our bags in the back, and they both look full. So, where are we going?”
“It’s probably somewhere in the middle, though anything of ours that didn’t get packed will remain safe in the house, so you don’t need to worry about that. Also, it looks like we are going on a bit of a road trip. First stop is a library where my guess is we will find what we need to translate that message Frost gave you. Not sure where to go after that but we will figure it out when we get there. We haven’t really had the chance to get you comfortable driving, so I’ll handle the bulk of it.”
“That sounds good. I will help however I can, though I am very new to whatever is about to happen.”
“Don’t worry about it, Maguire. Just keep me company and let me know if you need a bathroom break.”
We were out of the city within the hour, with three left to go before we reached our destination. I had been on many trips with many people, and among those names I decided Maguire ranked near the top of the list. He got a little twitchy when we hit traffic and whenever I started to speed up significantly, but in his defense, he was still getting used to some parts of the modern world. Thankfully, he did start to relax as the minutes stretched on and nothing horrendous happened. There were a few moments when he started to doze off that I considered mischief, but the only pranks I could think of felt a little mean for his first road trip. So, I decided not to, unless something really good came along like a truck hauling another truck.
That opportunity did not present itself and halfway to our destination, we turned onto a mostly empty road. I cracked the windows just enough to let the breeze in and turned up the radio, letting the music soak into the silence. The countryside draw Maguire’s attention, as it was quite beautiful, and I found myself enjoying the view as well.
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Then something in his posture shifted.
“It looks like there’s someone walking along the side of the road,” he said, pointing to a figure who was just visible near the horizon.
“They must have gotten lost or had some sort of accident. There isn’t much around here for miles.” I glanced at the GPS to confirm that we were, indeed, in the middle of nowhere.
“I know this may not be common practice, but can we offer him a ride? I feel terrible leaving him out here all on his own when we could do something to help.”
“What does your gut say?”
“It says that we should help him get to wherever he is going,” Maguire said simply.
“Alright, then. Let’s pick him up.”
I slowed down as we approached, taking care to give the man plenty of space as I slowly pulled up beside him. He was a scraggly looking older gentleman in worn clothes that must once have been very fine. As he turned to face us, he smiled, revealing several missing teeth. Something about him made me think of Halloween, especially with the odd glint in his eyes.
Maguire rolled down the window and leaned out. “Hello there. Do you need a ride?”
“Would you mind terribly taking me to the next town? It is a very long way to walk and I am quite tired,” the old man said. Maguire glanced at me and I nodded, letting him take the lead.
“Of course! Come in and make yourself comfortable. We have some food and water in the back if you need any.”
“You show this old man a great kindness.” The old man let himself into the back seat of the car, settling in and helping himself to the food and drinks. “If you would be so kind as to take me to my friend's home, I would greatly appreciate it. He lives just on the other side of the city and he has offered me a place to sleep for the night.”
“What’s the address?” I asked. He rattled off the address and Maguire punched the information into the GPS, setting it as a stop along the way to the library. This added another hour to our drive, meaning we would have to find a place to spend the night ourselves before beginning our research, but I kept that fact to myself. We still had plenty of time and I had a hunch that Maguire was onto something.
In fact, Maguire spent the whole time regaling the man with stories, answering whatever questions the old man asked without revealing any of the secrets I had shared with him. For hours they talked, with me chiming in occasionally to help clarify something that they were misunderstanding. It helped the time pass faster, though I still was not able to make up the loss enough to where we could make it to the library, since the old man asked for a warm meal as we passed by a diner.
The diner itself was a cozy little burger joint, the likes of which I had been wanting to introduce Maguire to, so I agreed and Maguire ended up covering the old man’s meal. We were only fifteen minutes from the address he had given us, by my estimate, but I let it happen anyway.
“The two of you have shown me great kindness, at the cost of your plans for the evening,” the old man said as the clock ticked past the library’s closing time. “You have given me much without expecting anything in return and for that, you shall be rewarded.”
The old man slid a key across the table towards me, then flipped a coin to Maguire. We both caught our gifts around the same time, and before either of us could respond, the man had vanished, leaving us with his mess to clean up and his bill to pay.
“What just happened?” Maguire asked, lowering his voice so only I could hear.
“I believe you just gained another Jack’s favor, and we got the key to a safe house where we can stay until it's time for our next move. I was wondering why the GPS was taking us such a strange way to get to the city.”
“He’s an Original?”
“It would appear so.”
“Which one?”
“Stingy Jack, the inspiration for the Jack ‘o Lanterns that people put out around Halloween. Haven’t met him before but I know of him. He’s not really one you find so much as he finds you, and his blessings are potent but rare. I’d keep a close eye on that coin if I were you.”
“Okay.” Maguire carefully tucked the coin into the little pouch he wore around his neck. “Well, now what? Do we have somewhere else to go?”
“I have no idea. We still have to translate that message that Frost gave you, which requires spending some time in the library, which may have some challenges of its own. First things first, though, we should settle up here and get to the safe house. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep and a shower.”
I slept well that night, and we woke early the next morning to get some coffee before heading to the library to begin the tedious task of translating Jack Frost’s foreign scrawl. While Maguire had certainly earned the respect of Stingy Jack, as much as one could, I did not sense a particularly strong connection between them. Even so, that respect could prove very useful in the long run, and there was no telling just how powerful his blessing would be.