Michael slowed down as they crossed. Emily’s eyes were glued to the view out her window. She saw the abandoned foundation of what must have been a shed. Maybe it was where the bus station was.
There was an odd energy to the place. An eerie feeling. Was this what haunted magic felt like? She didn’t hear any cries of the damned, nor did she see shades of passing ghosts. But the silence was deafening. The absolute death of the place sank into her skin. Before long, she developed the overwhelming desire to get as far away as possible.
Soon, Michael made a turn to the right, and they drove into New Haven. No one spoke after that. No one wanted to speak. Their hearts hung by a thread now as they snuck into town. Emily recognized that they had come into the town from the far south. This was the area where Joanna’s parents lived.
Michael was smart enough to keep to the streets and stay away from major roads. Of course, the Alfreds would be expecting them to enter the town from the far north, where the city limit was. Nevertheless, they couldn’t be too careful.
Emily had the thought to check on Joanna’s parents. They were cozy with the Alfreds; maybe they could get the Alfreds to release their prisoners. But she knew Michael would never agree to that. Probably a terrible idea.
“So how far do we need to go before we get to the safe house?” Emily asked instead.
“Not far,” Michael answered her.
They didn’t drive into the heart of town. Michael found an old road that led to the abandoned factory development project that got axed by the community. Emily now recognized where they were; if she remembered correctly, the project to bring a couple of industries into the town got vetoed by security problems as a result of the town’s supernatural infestation.
Some of these companies with parcels of land near the outskirts of the town had already started building before they all had to leave town. All of them. They were all run out of the town. They didn’t even bother to retrieve any of the equipment they had already brought in.
As the decades piled on, the industrial park became just another fallow area. No one ever went there. So when Michael took them through a side road into the industrial estate, Emily was naturally surprised.
She didn’t say anything. She was, however, on the edge of her seat as they drove for a few minutes down a long avenue. Eerie metal structures lurked on all sides. This place had that eerie feel as well. Long shadows and dark corners practically filled the area. There was a looming silence and the ever-present effect of the magical blanket spell on the city that kept the citizens docile.
They made it to the end of the avenue, which was a T-junction. Michael took a left, muttering to himself. He kept his eyes peeled for something. Emily wanted to ask him what it was, but thought better of it. She didn’t want him distracted, or to give him another opportunity to insult her.
The road they had turned to ended in a tall wall. It was the fence that hedged in the industrial estate area. The road curved to the left and ran parallel to the long avenue that ran through the industrial area like a spine. Michael parked on the shoulder of the road, just after curving along the bend.
He turned off the car, looked about the desolate area, and muttered, “We’re here.”
Emily opened her mouth to ask the obvious question, but she didn’t get to ask because Michael opened the door and jumped out.
Emily glanced at Dad, who was looking at her, mouth agape.
“Maybe there’s something he’s seeing that we’re not,” Dad offered.
Emily shrugged and got out of the car as well. Dad was not too far behind her. There was a small building just beside them. It looked like a bungalow but with the roof cut off. Or maybe the roof never existed in the first place. It was hard to tell.
Michael stood facing it, giving it a serious look.
“Hey, Michael, there’s nothing here!” Emily proclaimed. The frigid wind blasted through the road, cutting into her bones. She wrapped her arms around herself. Dad stood stoically beside her.
Michael pulled himself away from the house and turned to them. He pointed at the car, smiled at it, and whispered, “Montero.”
There was a crackle of electricity on the tip of his pointed finger. The car responded with a sharp vibration. And then it vanished.
Michael nodded, his grin widening. “We’re definitely in the right place.”
The young man stepped off the road into the small overgrown yard and into the roofless building. Emily had to detach herself from the reverie of an invisible car. Dad, however, reached out and tried to touch the car. His hand made contact.
“It’s still there.” Dad’s hand hung in the air. “He really did make it invisible.”
“And that’s surprising why?” Emily looked at her dad, lips parted slightly.
Dad didn’t say anything.
“Come on guys,” Michael asserted. “This way.” He was standing in the living room and waving to them. Emily and her father went to meet him.
“This is a small house,” Michael explained. “It was supposed to belong to the caretaker of this park. Basically, someone to keep it from theft and all.”
“He never got employed, I see,” Emily said, looking around the dusty place. The living room was narrow and cramped. In fact, the whole place was smaller than Emily’s living room at home. It was difficult to imagine a grown man living there, especially if he had a wife.
“Pardon me, Michael, but I don’t see a magical safe house,” Dad said. “What I see is an incomplete building.”
Michael grinned. It was almost unfair. If Emily had made that statement, Michael
