A girl chasing her dream. A boy looking for the light.
When Florence Nyx started her internship at a Formula 1 paddock, she expected a lot. Fast cars. Exclusive impressions most people could only dream of. An entire array of skills she'd acquire...
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The dim moonlight shone onto the concrete, illuminating the world in its calm glow. I bathed in the silence brought by the night; It'd been a while since I went jogging like that, and with the heat in Bahrain, you only had a few hours each day that offered enough shelter for a run.
It was four-thirty in the morning, so I had about an hour left before the sun rose and suffocated all of us in its warmth.
With every street light I passed, with every mile I left behind, my muscles burned. I wanted them to; I wanted to feel every damn bone in my body as I jogged my heart out and felt my heart race in my chest, sweat trickling down my skin.
After that disastrous first race weekend, which ended with Felipe and I bringing the car home in fifteenth and seventeenth place, I'd pushed my body to the limits. It was the best way for me to shut out the thoughts in my head, the fury and rage still lingering deep in my veins for not being able to score a damn point on my first comeback race.
The hardest part was that I couldn't even blame anyone. I was smart enough to know how the industry worked, and that the issue wasn't something just one person could fix. Still, I was getting agitated. With everything going on, my career was the only thing I could control.
Or at least so I thought...
A flickering street light made me glance up, and I suddenly realized I had no idea where I was even going anymore. The buildings seemed unfamiliar and I couldn't recognize any of the shops around. With a tap on my ancient smartwatch, I tracked my steps, seeing I was already on my feet for five miles. It was time to get back home.
Question was, how?
I could've just opened the Maps app on my watch, but decided against it. The old thing would probably crash on me the second I decided to use it. Instead, I looked around, trying to find a familiar street sign or shop in the area. The foreign Arabic letters didn't help, though, and so I heaved a sigh, looking up at the fading stars.
They stared down at me mockingly, not even trying to help me find a way back home.
Seemed like they only spoke to higher deities — I bet they'd speak to the Goddess of the night.
I smiled at the thought.
"Lost?" The sound of footsteps followed the familiar voice, and I glanced over to find Florence coming to a halt next to me. She was barely recognizable with her entire body covered in black clothes, only leaving her hands and face on display.
I almost laughed at how fate transferred my thoughts to reality, but when I watched her chest heave with deep breaths, the rare inches of her revealed skin glistening in the dim light, all amusement got stuck in my throat.
A grey headband holding a flashlight was strapped around her head that was covered beneath her dark hood, and yellow reflective straps enveloped her wrists and ankles. I furrowed my brows at her appearance, glancing down at my own shorts and tank top. She must've been hyperventilating in those clothes in twenty degrees Celsius.
