Julia Lelieveld and the battle with the underworld

~23~

"Are you okay?" I looked around confused for a moment, sweat was on my head. I nodded. "Nightmare." I looked outside and it was thundering. "What time is it?" Lucas picked up his phone. "It's half past one, maybe we can go right away." I sat down and leaned on my knees for a moment. Only then did I realize that I was only wearing a bra and a thong. Shit. I looked at Lucas and he just looked away from me. He got up quickly. "I'm going to get ready for the ride," he said quickly. I nodded and looked after him. The genes ran in the family. Lucas had a nicely toned body. Jesus Julia, act normal, you're here for completely different things. I shook my head and got out of bed too. Luckily our clothes were dry again. When Lucas was done, I shot past him and prepared for the long drive to come. When we were done we walked downstairs, the bar was still open and the man looked at us questioningly. Lucas handed him the key and waved goodbye. The man understood and greeted us in his own language. Once outside, it turned out that it had stopped raining. We put on our helmets and drove on towards Romania.

After half an hour I saw Lucas look behind us a few times. I followed his gaze and saw a car with square headlights driving ahead. It must be about half past one now and we hadn't seen anyone yet. Lucas accelerated a bit and I kept an eye on the car. After half an hour he was still behind us. Lucas looked back again. He shook his head. Shit, this wasn't good. He turned into a side road that lay between the trees, not much later I saw the square headlights again. I gave Lucas a squeeze on his side and he understood me immediately. He went a little faster and turned into a dirt road. He turned off his lights and we took shelter behind some big trees. He gestured for me to be quiet. I nodded and less than a minute later the car passed. I saw there were three people inside and they were all peering through the windshield. Those sitting on the back seat just looked to the side in our direction. Luckily it was night and he couldn't possibly see us. We waited a few more minutes when Lucas got back on the bike and I followed suit, we had to get out of here. But the moment Lucas wanted to switch on his bike, I squeezed his shoulder hard. Shit, there was another car with 4 other people in it. This time they drove a lot slower.

We stood like statues so hopefully they wouldn't see us. This time they had flashlights and shone into the woods. I focused on the elements and pretty soon I felt life around me. The bushes in front of us were not big enough to cover us with the motorbike and all. I called to Earth and opened my hand to the bush and let it grow into a big bush. Lucas took off his helmet and looked at me wide-eyed. When the bush was big enough I thanked Earth in my mind and looked at Lucas. Now I was the one who made the sign for him to be quiet. He nodded, but kept looking at me. His eyes glittered in the night. He studied my face and then picked up my hand to see if it looked different. His strong big hands held mine gently, he ran his index finger over the palm of my hand which gave a tingling sensation. He shook his head, not understanding that there was nothing to see on my hand, when energy had just come out to make the bush grow. It helped, the car drove gently past. We didn't wait a second and drove off in the direction we came from. Once back on the hard road, Lucas drove as fast as possible, I held him tight and squeezed my eyes shut. I thought it was terrifying. The little bit of light shining on the road from his headlight wasn't enough to see what was coming in the distance. But Lucas didn't seem bothered by it. After driving for about an hour and a half, Lucas stopped at a gas station. As with the previous times, he filled up his engine while I already walked to the shop to stock up on food and drinks for the road. When he came in I had gathered enough and we paid quickly and drove on. After another hour and a half he turned onto a small road and after five minutes he stopped at a wooden hut. He stopped his engine and got off. I looked at him questioningly. "These are hunting huts, they are all over the country. We need to rest and have some food and come up with a strategy." I nodded and followed him. The cabin was small. There were two wooden beds, a table and three crutches. You could also light a fire and there was a kettle next to it. I sat down on one of the crutches and Lucas followed suit. He rubbed his hands and blew into them. "Is it safe enough to light a fire?" I asked him. He looked out and nodded. "I think so, it's still too dark to trace the signals back to us." I went outside and looked for some wood, which was not difficult, because there turned out to be a stock of firewood behind the house. I heard a river flowing and I felt the elements come alive around me. It felt good. I came back with my arms full. I saw Lucas searching his cell phone. I put the wood on the fire pit and I let the elements come to me, the comfortable feeling took over me. I felt myself getting all warm just to think of Fire. I had to remember this for next time. My arm started to tingle and got hotter and hotter and before I knew it a fireball was dancing on my palm. I fired the ball to the wood and it caught fire right away. Gratefully I sat down next to it and warmed my hands, not long after Lucas came and sat next to me followed my example. "I really needed this," he said. I looked at him and he looked tired. "It sure is exhausting driving in the dark like that." He nodded. "Especially when I have to drive so fast, I have to concentrate very much on the road and what's coming." "What do you think is coming?" I asked him. He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. "I'm afraid they're onto us. When you use your powers, they make you feel better. Just with the bush and now with the fire. As if I'm being pulled towards you and can't leave you anymore." He shrugged embarrassingly. I looked at him with wide eyes.