Of Love & Charlatans

The Silent Street

That night, the wind was wrong – Adeline could sense it as she clenched the fabric of her coat pockets and chewed the bottom of her lip in discontent. In all her years living in Oceanside, it simply never felt this disjointed, this low to the ground and hollowed.

No, something was off. The wind was speaking but saying what?

"Ade?" A voice jutted the young brunette out of her mind's eye. "Did you hear anything I just said?"

Adeline's porcelain cheeks tinted, "Sorry. You were talking about Justin?" As the words slipped out, so did any remaining thoughts of the wind.

"Yeah. What am I supposed to tell Jess?"

"I dunno. The truth I guess." She shrugged and kicked a small pebble resting in the center of the rain-soaked pavement.

"Well duh but how? Just flat out say I saw him go into Jayda's room?" Tera continued talking about how awful the whole situation was, but Adeline started to lose her train of thought again after the word "party."

It wasn't that she didn't want to listen, she simply had no interest in the subject. If it were her, she would've called Jess two hours ago and told her he was a cheating prick. What was the point in talking about it so much? To formulate the right way to say it? Didn't seem to matter – it would hurt equally as bad either way. Still, it seemed Tera cared...or just wanted to be heard.

Lifting her eyes to the iridescent studded sky, she began to drift backwards – something she often did lately in the presence of the moon. She smiled down at her, passing glimpses of chestnut locks and honey sticks.

I remember. Adeline spoke in her mind, the corners of her mouth tugging slightly.

"What are you staring at?" It was then that Adeline realized she was stopped a few feet behind Tera who blinked at her with concern. "We're almost home. It's getting cold." She added, following her gaze.

"Sorry, I thought I saw something." Adeline lied and continued walking, adamant on keeping her focus on her friend for the rest of the night.

"Weird. Anyways, how have you been? Did you talk to that one professor about your homework?" Tera asked.

Adeline sighed. She had completely forgotten about the missing assignment her professor had given her an extra week to do. Of course, two weeks later, she still hadn't done it. Failing out of classes was just another self-fulfilling prophecy she had for herself.

"Yeah. I got it covered. How are your classes?" She didn't know why she felt the need to lie to Tera, someone who had been with her since highschool. She guessed she wasn't in the mood to talk about herself. Then again, she never was.

Thankfully, Tera took that as her cue to talk about all her favorite classes this semester. Adeline was happy for her, she had finally found something she was passionate about. Biochemistry wasn't something that appealed to her own senses, but she was envious of the spark that seemed to light when Tera spoke about it.

The pair continued the dimly lit path, paying little mind to the surrounding passerby. One or two couples shared a few laughs and groups of college students looking for their next bar stop zig-zagged the strip. It was a fairly safe area even near midnight. Adeline and Tera had lived in a little downtown nook for almost three years and never found there to be too much trouble besides drunken mishaps.

But that particular night, the wind was quite low and quite strong while it nipped at tired heels. It was more familiar to Adeline than she knew; it was the same wisps that darted about the sky while she sat in a hospital room for thirty eight hours scraping her nails against the back of her neck. And it was the same gust that propelled itself against her spine as she stood before an unmarked grave.

But Adeline didn't know that. All she knew was when she turned that corner, she saw a shadow across the street.

"Daniel?" Her breath caught.

Tera whipped her head and stared at her with wild pupils, "Wha-?"

A resilient rumble shook the earth, the sound of rubber tearing asphalt rushing Adeline's eardrums. Its fast-approaching roar grew louder with every millisecond. The girl snapped her neck to the side just as nausea hit the base of her core and shot up her throat.

"Adeline?" Tera breathed. "What is-?"

A flash of light and metal, an awful screech and the fumes of exhausted rubber consumed the silent side street in four seconds. Adeline could handle that – what she couldn't handle was the sight of a young man catapulting from the motorcycle and crunching his bones against the side of a parked car.

"Adeline." Tera repeated, her tone shaking violently.

Those blurred moments before panic set in said more about Adeline than anything that followed in the next six weeks. Remember that.

In an instant, she was halfway across the street, sliding to her knees to cradle the crumpled figure while Tera still stood frozen on the sidewalk. Her chest tightened and the veins of her neck ran hot, throbbing to break the skin's surface.

"Sir?" She placed her hands around his helmet, trying to pull it off.

A soft groan came from behind the visor, but he didn't move. The man stayed quite still for a few seconds while Adeline fidgeted with the clip. Then, all at once, his consciousness seemed to snap forward and his hands pressed against the gravel.

She leaned back while he shifted his back against the dented car door and lifted his hands to his helmet. He tore it off, a pile of black strands tumbling down to shroud his face as he tossed it aside. Ivy slivers peered out questioningly before blood-muddied fingers ran through his hair to reveal shockingly sharp features.

"I'm good." He mumbled after a few heaves.

"I-." Adeline didn't know what to say. She wasn't sure if it was because of his staggering attractiveness or because she just witnessed a man throw himself against a car and say "i'm good" afterwards. She was leaning toward the latter.

"I should call an ambulance." She went to pull out her phone, but the man was suddenly at his feet, glaring hard at something in the distance.

She turned around to see Tera walking across the street with her phone to her ear, but that wasn't what he was looking at. A black sedan was tilting around the corner, burning its wheels as it sped toward the accident. Adeline had half a mind to wave it down for help, but the revving of its engine told her she should probably run.

Adeline's eyes darted back to Tera, "Tera!" She screamed.

The car didn't slow as it blasted toward the young girl – milliseconds before they collided, Tera threw herself back and it continued forward without so much as a honk.

Adeline sprinted to her friend and helped her up, "Are you okay?" Metal seared her taste buds as she spoke.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Tera's entire body shook as she leaned into Adeline for support.

"That guy, he-." Adeline started to speak, but her lips sealed into a tight line when she looked back at the crash.

Nothing.

No man. No motorcycle. No dented car.

Just a flickering lamp post shining down on an empty, silent street.

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Hi there, thanks for reading! I'll be posting new chapters every Friday at 6 p.m. PST. I'm so excited to finally share this new story with all of you. I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on where you think the story is headed! Also, if you could vote, it would mean the world to me :)

Next Update: 12/24