APRICITAS [ENG] || Johan Liebert || Monster

Chapter 29 - A brother and a Sister

Emiko's fears vanished when the man in the white suit woke up a few minutes later at one of the parking lots on the main road, his head slightly tilted to the seat she occupied. The girl sighed with a feeling of real relief.

"It's a good thing you're okay... I was worried I'd have to look for a hospital with ER in the middle of the night..." He rubbed his eyes lightly at this statement.

"What was going on there... For a moment I had the impression... As if you wanted to kill us, miss." The girl put a hand over her face, hiding her embarrassment.

"S-sorry." She whispered. "I think I exaggerated..."

"But... you managed to win?" He turned to her, fully awake now.

"Yeah... it looks like it." Completely unexpectedly, the man began to laugh, which seriously surprised her.

"They say that..." He tried to spoke at the same time he was laughing, which came to him with difficulty. "...what... doesn't kill us... makes us stronger... I'll never... forget... this ride today... believe me, miss..." After a while, when he finally managed to calm down a bit, he turned back to her. "As I promised earlier, I will drive you to Frankfurt. Please, switch places with me."

"Are you sure you're all right?" She asked slightly concerned, remembering his recent fright at the mountain pass and all the stress he must have endured during this event.

"At its best." He answered her, then smiled. So they got out of the car and switched places, and after a while they set off on their way.

****

In the morning, when it was slowly getting light and the sun was about to rise, they reached their destination. Although the man was willing to take her to any address she wanted, she politely thanked him for everything and got off the car near the city center. The fact that the driver had deliberately deviated from his route just to help her was, according to her, a too much of his kindness. She didn't want to cause him any more problems.

"Once again, thank you very much for helping me and bringing me here."

"My pleasure." He replied with a smile, taking her suitcase from the backseat. "The ride with you wasn't so much scary as it was fascinating. I've never seen anyone drive a car like this." Emiko yawned slightly from the huge drowsiness accumulating in her since the previous evening, which is why she quickly covered her mouth with her hand.

"I'm glad you didn't have a heart attack or something. Really." The man nodded.

"I'd like to... Wait a second, please!" After that, he ran to the other side of the car and began frantically rummaging for something in the car's compartment. Young Tenma used this brief moment to figure out which way she should go to the memorable hostel... When at that time back then...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the silhouette of a man standing next to her again, who handed her a piece of paper. Emiko looked surprised.

"Here you are," He began, and she took the item in surprise. "this is my phone number. If... if you'd like to talk sometime... or go to a vintage car exhibition, I'd be delighted to go there with you..." He cleared his throat slightly embarrassed and nodded at her, then walked over to the driver's side door. "Goodbye!" He waved one last time before getting into his car and driving away. The girl looked incredulously at the street where he had disappeared around the next corner, and then at the scrap of paper she was holding in her hand. She blinked her eyes.

'As things stand, I need to go to sleep. Too many weird things happened that night... Too... many.'