𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡

𝟐𝟓 | 𝐧𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠

Ten seconds.

"Gosh, I'm gonna throw up," Otto hissed.

"Remember who's the owner of this car," I winked, tilting my head out the window for the last time. "See you at the finish line, motherfuckers!" For the last three seconds, I didn't think at all. The only thing I focused on was the number one that was supposed to start us. As a bright red word START has appeared, I stepped on the pedal, and the wild ride could begin.

At first, Leo's BMW stuck to Cooper's Porsche, but then our car began to move away.

"Why are you slowing down?!" Otto shrieked, holding on tightly to whatever his brittle fingers could grab.

"Why do you think I'm slowing down?" I shouted back.

"Probably because we're behind," he not. "Add the speed! We can't lose!"

"Hell, Wilder, if I knock down a woman with a child on the crossing because of you...," I muttered, shifting to a higher gear. A vein jumped on my forehead, which only witnessed my tension. I didn't care if Leo's car falls apart or the two of us will end up half-dead in the hospital, we had to win. At that moment, it was my only goal.

Two seconds later, Cooper and I were on the same part of the road. His mocking expression spoke for itself.

"So, the princess has decided to return to the game." His voice echoed in our car, which made Otto twitch. Even I was a little surprised. "What, Wilder, are you happy to hear me?" My eyes look down at the camera, where a small icon of a microphone has glowed green. They could hear our every word.

"Who said I ever left the game?" I asked aloud, glancing sideways at Cooper, seeing him frown. I made sure all of them could hear me in the other car.

"And I'm glad I'll be able to hear your cry when you lose," Otto said. We were approaching the place where it was all supposed to end. Otto began to lose his temper, and he wasn't the only one. For a moment, Cooper was first, then I was, other times we both drove right next to each other, pushing each other out of the way. When it looked like I was going to overtake him, Cooper's car turned.

"What's that jerk doing?!" Otto exploded.

"That jerk can hear you," Cooper hissed menacingly, taking a deep breath. "Wilder, don't experience it that way. We didn't agree on any rules. As I recall, nothing about the shortcuts has been said."

"You fuc..." Otto's words were lost in the noisy laughter coming from the camera.

"That's enough!" I shouted so loudly that if Cooper's car were still near mine, everyone would hear me well even without a camera. "No one's going to play dirty with me, Cooper," I growled, grabbing the camera with my right hand.

"What are you doing ?!" Cooper shouted. "Do you know how much such a thing costs?"

"I don't know," I said matter-of-factly. "You can send me a picture of the bill so I can feel sorry for you," I hissed while opening the window and saying goodbye to the camera forever. It shattered with its impact on the ground.

"That was cool!" Otto admitted. "But...what do you want to do now?"

"To win, of course!" Otto frowned, looking at me as if I had said complete nonsense. "Don't look at me like that, okay?" I imitated him. "Do you know any way we can overtake him?"

"Cooper is sneaky. He chose a much shorter route. The only way to get to the finish line before him is... to go fast. Very, very fast."

"Otto Wilder," I said in a low, calm voice. By the expression on his face, I bet he knew in advance what I was going to tell him. "HOLD ON!" I shouted, adding to the speed. We drove as fast as we could. Otto, meanwhile, managed to turn on the radio, so we didn't hear the engine running at full speed.

We were driving at a dangerous speed.

We felt dangerous.

I lost my perception of time. Didn't know how we came to a neighborhood full of heavy traffic and a lot of pedestrians. Even that didn't force me to slow down. Cars and people flickered in a blur. Otto's hair stuck out of fear like the tentacles of an octopus. I turned off the common sense screaming in my head that I could die. So what. I will not be defeated by Aaron Cooper.

Thinking of his name, in the rearview mirror I saw a familiar black vehicle approaching us and didn't have to guess twice to find out it was Aaron.

"Here comes the cheater," I smirked at his surprised face. I wanted to do anything just to anger him even more. Apparently, my wicked thoughts have probably reflected on my face, because Otto said in a firm voice:

"Leave it to me." He pulled down the window and showed his middle finger to the car in the back. Cooper honked at us, to what Otto and I laughed.

Soon, we had him by our body as some parasite. We were approaching the goal, and neither of us was slowing down. We drove alongside other, much larger vehicles like the two eels trying to eat each other. It has seemed that our race would end in a draw if a traffic light with a red light on hadn't appeared.

There were only two options.

Stop and lose. Or continue and maybe die.

"You're not considering..." Otto said, but when he noticed my determined expression, he stopped talking. "Why didn't I rather be-friend a lover of Twilight," I heard him mumble under his nose.

"Because that wouldn't be such fun," I replied, grinning.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he shook his head. This rhetorical question remained unanswered and disappeared in the music, which gradually escalated just as the adrenaline in my body rose. There was a ringing in my ears, my palms were damp from the sweat, and adrenaline made the hair at the back of my neck stand up. I could feel a taste of danger right on my tongue. Let's do it! I encouraged myself, maximizing my alertness. We went on the red light, and the only thing I've noticed was that we shook the car behind us.

We were almost hit by a truck. But only almost...

"DAMN! RIA, WE'RE ALIVE!" Otto exclaimed and threw his hands up, making his fist slam against the roof of the car. He has started cursing, but I didn't pay any attention to him because I still haven't processed what happened.

We were safe, okay, and first at the finish line.

"Of course, we're alive," I said as I parked carefully with a huge smile on. "Did you doubt me?" The question seemed silly to me because I myself wasn't sure if we will end up alive. But we succeeded – we were breathing.