CHAPTER FOURTY SEVEN
[46]

song: compass by the neighbourhood

SOMEHOW, SHE WAS IN THE PASSENGER SEAT OF HIS CAR. After arguing about the possibility of taking two separate vehicles, Daisy found herself six hours into the ten hour drive. It's been pretty silent on both ends, except for the occasional argument over the respective driver taking a wrong turn and setting them off course.

"You need glasses." Kai says, glancing at the giant map Daisy had held up and was trying to read, and then back to the road.

"It says to take the next exit!" She yells frustratedly, gesturing towards the road.

"That would send us back to where we came from!" He yells back.

"Then you fucking read it!" She yells, crumbling up the map and tossing it at him, before slumping back in her seat, frustratedly crossing her arms.

"I'm driving!" He yells, flailing his arm at the road.

Daisy turns and looks at him like he's stupid. "Then stop driving it's not like you'll hold up traffic!" She yells, louder than him. Kai slams on the breaks, sending them both forward in their seat until the car came to a skidded stop. She stares at him with narrowed eyes. "Was that necessary?"

He lets out a huff before grabbing the map and looking for himself, he squinted his eyes and leaned forward, dragging his finger over the red line they were supposed to follow to get to Maine. Daisy watched him, waiting for the realization to wash over his face, and when it did, she gave him a satisfied smile before slumping back in her seat.

"That doesn't even make sense." He rolls his eyes, crumbling the map back up and tossing it to Daisy, before starting to drive again.
She rolls her eyes, hoping he was regretting taking her on this trip.

—

Kai knew they were there when the only thing you could see were the oceans and mountains. He'd never actually been to Maine, despite half his family living here, but he'd seen pictures from when his family visited during the Summer. Bar Harbor was small, just a fishing town and nothing special— but still somehow a tourist destination.

He glanced over at Daisy, who was curled up under a blanket in the passenger seat asleep, like she had been for the past three hours. When he brought the car to a stop, she slowly woke up, and he watched as she regained consciousness, processing where she was.

"Are we here?" She asks, her voice groggy and her eyes squinted from the sudden intake of light. Kai nods, taking the keys out of the car.

Daisy sits up and stretches. Kai got out of the car, walking around to the backseat to get his backpack. The breeze was much colder here, and she could already smell the salty air. Pushing her blanket off of her, she gets out of car and shuts the door behind her, putting her hands on her hips as she looked around at the new city.

The small shops and houses lived on docks, and past them was the ocean. Mountains surrounded them and the seagulls were obnoxiously loud.

"What now?" Daisy asks, turning to Kai. Hey eyelids were heavy as she was still waking up.

Kai shuffled through his bag, and he pulled out a compass, examining it. "Now we follow this." He says, before sending Daisy a nod and swinging his bag back over his shoulder.

He started towards the harbor, glancing at the compass every once in a while. Daisy lingered by the car a bit before following, wrapping her arms around her tightly for a bit of extra warmth as the seat breeze made her shiver.

"What even is that?" She asks, following a few feet behind Kai.

"It leads to things that share my ancestral magic." He says. "So not the grimoire specifically, but it'll give us an idea on where to look."

Daisy nodded, even though she didn't understand, or really care to. His magic and Coven was something she'd never really asked to many questions about, surprisingly. She'd been a little too preoccupied with other suspicions to care enough. But he didn't seem to willing to talk about it, either. It was something he kept to himself, and when he didn't, it was usually something bad.

The two walked down the streets of the harbor for a while, not saying much. They passed numerous docks with abandoned boats and fishing shops. The fish smell making Daisy turn up her nose.

Kai stopped in his tracks, looking up from the compass, and then to his surroundings. Daisy followed his gaze around, trying to see what he saw. He mumbled something to himself, a confused expression on his face. "It keeps moving. It was leading us North, then it just completely changed to South, and now West." He says, as he repeatedly hit the compass in an attempt to get it to work again.

Daisy shrugged, again not caring enough to try and analyze the situation. She tugged her suede brown jacket around her as Kai tried to figure out what was going wrong. "I'm gonna wait in the car." She says, growing bored. And cold.

"No." Kai shook his head, still looking around. "Something's not right."

She let out a bored sigh and shrugged. "Maybe there's just a lot of your ancestors magic stuff around this town."

"No, that isn't how this works." He responds. He was too focused to be sarcastic or annoying right now, and he was actually much more pleasant to be around when he wasn't talking as much.

"My bad." Daisy retorts with a slight scoff. Did he really expect her to know how ancestral magic worked? She stood and watched as he desperately tried to figure this compass out, before turning and walking away. "Why don't I go get food or something? We passed a burger place and—"

"Yeah, yeah." Kai nodded, waving her off and really not processing anything she said as he aimlessly followed the constantly changing direction compass.

"O-kay." She responded, eyeing him weirdly before spinning on her heel and walking back down the harbor the way they came. She took a left and examined the buildings she passed as she made her way to the restaurant she saw earlier. The buildings were old, with rotting wood, painted over with fresh white paint and cute handmade storefront signs. But they had a certain charm that only a fishing town could have.

'Jodie's Fry n' Fish Shop' read the sign that hung above the door. Daisy admired it before walking inside, the door creaking as she walked inside. Somehow, it smelt more fishy in here than outside by the ocean, but it still made her stomach rumble. She walked past the tables and towards the back kitchen, where fresh ingredients were displayed in the pantry baskets.

Daisy grabbed a burger flipper and flicked the burgers that were already on the grill off, happily putting two fresh patties on the grill and frying up some new ones herself. She sat up on the counter behind her and watched them cook, munching on partly cold fries as she waited.

She was about to make herself some ice cream, which she could see in the freezer by the door, but stopped when she heard a chair scoot across the floor from the front.

Daisy scoffed. "Find anything?" She yelled to the front, hopping off the counter and grabbing the tub of ice cream from the freezer before glancing out the doorway— expecting to see Kai, but no one was there.

She didn't think anything of it, and turned back to the kitchen. She took her now perfectly cooked burgers and assembled them together with buns and cheese.

She kicked the door open as she didn't have any hands to open it properly, taking an eager bite from her burger as she balanced food, drinks, and a tub of ice cream in her arms.

"There's fries in the back if you want any." Daisy says with a full mouth, putting her things on one of tables. She glances around to the empty shop. She could've sworn she heard Kai move a chair out here just a second ago. "Hellooo?" She says, taking another bite from her food as she walks towards the front door. She pushes it open and glances around outside for any sign of him, but shuts the door again when he was no where to be found.

She comes to the conclusion that it was just her mind playing tricks on her, something that wasn't very uncommon here. She regathers her things back up to go meet Kai, but stops when the sound of silverware falling comes from the kitchen.

"I literally just sat and made you a burger for ten minutes and your response is to try and scare me?" She says with a huff as she pushed open the door to the kitchen. "I even brought ice cr—"

Her words fell short as a scrawny, unfamiliar man hunkered in the corner of the kitchen, his eyes filled with fear and confusion. "Who are you?" He said, stumbling on his words.

Her mouth hung open as her mind raced with possibilities— none that made any rational sense, but nothing really did anymore. She narrowed her eyebrows at him and shook her head. "Who am— who are you?!" She asked back, just as confused.

He was an older man, maybe mid fifty's. He was pale and looked sick, and was shaking with fear. He stood in the back corner of the kitchen leaning down towards the counter like it would provide him a sort of protection.

"Walter. Freeley." He said, he slowly started to regain a bit of composure when he realized that Daisy probably wasn't a threat. He shook his head, not believing what he was seeing. His eyes looked desperate and frantic as he came around the counter and made his way over to Daisy, who stepped back at his approach. "I thought I was the only one here." He said in disbelief.

Daisy looked taken aback, examining the man with wide eyes. "I—" She didn't even know what to say.

"Why are you here? Who put you here?" He said. The desperation that radiated off of him was unnerving, and Daisy slowly made her way to the front, as he stepped towards her trying to get answers.

"Well, I—" She swallowed, glancing around at her surroundings for some sort of object she could use to defend herself if need be. If this man had truly thought he had been here alone, for who knows how long, he had to have gone a bit crazy. But she couldn't judge.

"Are you a witch?" Walter asks, and Daisy stopped in her tracks, looking at him with narrowed eyes as she shook her head.

"The Gemini Coven— did they— put you here?" She spoke, his eyes lit up with familiarity as she spoke and he nodded quickly.

"Yes." He nodded. "Did they—"

Daisy already knew what he was going to ask, and she nodded in response. She swallowed harshly, glancing at the door behind her. "Come with me," she said.

She didn't know what to do. She couldn't just go about her day acting like this was a normal human interaction she had just had. She had to get some sort of information from him, especially if he knows about The Gemini Coven.

She pushes the front door open and Walter looks at her hesitantly before following behind, the cold sea breeze hitting them like a jolt when they stepped back out on the harbor.

Daisy quickly began her trudge back to where she had left Kai, not waiting up for Walter who struggled to follow. Her mind was battling with whether or not this was good news, or bad news.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you—" Walter said from behind her as she kept her focus on the walk ahead. "I was a bit freaked out myself." He let out a slight chuckle, and it sounded like he was definitely a smoker.

"It's okay." She forced a faint smile, completely unaware with what to say to this random man she'd just met, in a world she thought she had to herself. She was unsure about a lot of things, but this especially. "Kai!" Daisy shouted loudly as they approached where she had just left him.

"Kai?" Walter spoke quietly as he caught up to Daisy.

She started to think the worst— whatever the worst was— had happened when she wasn't still standing on the docks. But he quickly came out of a nearby shop, compass still in hand.

Kai glanced at Daisy, then to the scrawny man behind her. Daisy watched as his expression went from content to deeply confused. "New friend?" He mutters to Daisy as his eyes stayed glued on Walter.

"I know you..." Walter says inquisitively, slowly stepping towards Kai with narrowed eyes.

Kai eyed the man with a not-so-subtle look of disgust as he crept closer. "Are you gonna tell me what's going on?" Kai says, glancing at Daisy and the back to Walter as he examined his face.

"You're that Parker boy." Walter says.

"How do you know who he is?" Daisy says, stepping forward and getting in Walter's line of sight.

"Hello? Explanation? Please?" Kai says.

Daisy turns to Kai. "There's no explanation to give I just found him and—"

"His father is the leader of my Coven." Walter says, expecting Daisy wouldn't know and explaining it to her. "They sent me here two years ago."

Two years. He'd been here for two years and Daisy had no idea.

"Well." Kai says, he waits a few seconds before speaking again. "Join the club." He says, as he turned around on his heel and continued his search, compass in hand.

Daisy's mouth fell open, but she really wasn't sure what other response she expected from him. "Kai!" She says, walking after him quickly.

"Yes?" He says, still focused on the stupid compass.

She grabs his arm and turns him around, looking at him like he was stupid. "So we just carry on now? Nothing to worry about?" She says with wide eyes.

He glances behind her at Walter, who stood awkwardly a few feet behind. Then turns back to her with a tilted head. "Just leave him. I don't care."

"Yeah. I got that. But I do." She scoffs. "He's in your coven. He was sent here by your coven. Don't you think he might have a little knowledge to spare about—" She flails her arms out. "all this?!"

Kai ran his tongue over his teeth, lowering his voice a bit before speaking. "We don't need him." He shakes his head, before turning back around and continuing to follow his compass.

"Really? Because you've been following that compass around for thirty minutes and you've just been going in circles." Daisy says, watching as Kai followed the compass' direction, which turned him back around and right to Walter.

Kai let's out a sigh, glancing from the compass and back to Walter. "It's been leading me to you." He says with deep annoyance.

"What'd you say your name was again?" Walter says, still peering at him.

"I didn't." Kai says, clenching his jaw as he shoved the compass back in his jacket. He turns back to Daisy, who looked pleased with herself, then back to Walter. "What do you know about prison worlds?"