HUMAN

Chapter 27 - Hometown

Photo credits to RayquazaKing04

CONNECT BLUETOOTH DEVICE. . . ?

BLUETOOTH CONNECTING TO 'Max's Phone'. . .

BLUETOOTH CONNECTION SUCCESSFUL. . .

NOW PLAYING - 'Everlong' by Foo Fighters

My foot thumped with the beat of the guitar as I felt the vibrations of the speaker where my leg rested. Lip-syncing along with the lyrics and tapping my fingers on the steering wheel, I switched on my lights, illuminating the road ahead of me as the sun was beginning to set.

A hairpin was right ahead of me. I proceeded to heel-toe downshift from 4th to 3rd, to 2nd, then veered towards the corner before applying minimal counter-steering to stay on the shortest line, then returned to the accelerator. The car's rear tires kicked out on the side as the car began to burn rubber around the corner.

God knows how long I've been abusing this car to its limits. And I've made it so far after Frank's training that my drifts started to become smoother with each training session.

With a few more hairpins and corners remaining, I made it down the hill, which led me out of Rose Hill Summit territory. I relaxed my grasp on the steering wheel and cruised along the highway.

"2 and a half hours to go. . ." I muttered, seeing the distance I would travel on the navigation. As my mind wandered off to some other thought, something was caught in my peripheral vision. I was in disbelief and confused to see a sizeable scratch on the right headlight.

"WHAT THE FU-"

- - -

I point the camera towards the damage. Frank was left in utter despair, and what I could only muster was a festering rage that he was hiding from me. After a few deep breaths, "Bring the camera closer; I want to see how deep it is." I brought the camera closer. Frank leaned in, unconscious to his snout being in full view for me to see.

I held back a laugh, but the grin didn't slip by him. "Was this you?!" He exploded at me. "What?! No! No! I can't even make these sorts of scratches with my fingers!" I immediately fired back, taking off the forearm-length gloves that resemble a wolf's arm and hands.

"Human nails can't make deep scratches like this, you know that?" He sighed deeply before replying, "I guess. . .well, we can't do anything about this for now, kid. Just go on with your trip." He said before abruptly ending the call.

"Wait- damn it!" I tried to call back, but he'd dropped the phone and moved on to something else. I was about to ask him if he could change my mask to make drinking more manageable and if he could do some ventilation work on these forearm-length gloves.

A new addition to my fake identity setup is these realistic wolf gloves. It comes with a unique fingerprint, faux fur that is identical to looks and feel, and a nice pair of claws (I can assure you, cannot scratch car paint that deep because they're not real). Before, I had to wear articles of clothing that must be long-sleeved and thick gloves, which is pretty inconvenient for the rising temperatures.

I spot a car in the distance. I turned my holographic mask back on and quickly strapped the gloves on before hopping back in the car. Before I fired up the engine, the vehicle from the distance was a semi that pulled up next to me. "Was' the prob chief?"

My ears perked up as I looked at him quizzically. "Oh. . .well, I just inspected a scratch on my car but nothing else." He nodded. "Well, ye' better turn off those hazards." He said before driving off to his destination.