Ecstasy

Chapter 8

I'll add names to the chapters when I'm done.

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The darkness is over us. We sit silently in his car, waiting for Tic to arrive. The digital clock on the car radio switches the hour. It blows in the trees outside. It really doesn't feel like summer anymore, but maybe that is because I have serious problems that I think so. The park lies dark, the basketball court barely lit up. Daniel parked a bit further away, but so we still see if anyone comes. No one is out walking. This neighborhood is sorta known for it's criminal residents. One minute past eleven. He needs to be here soon, we can't wait all night. Daniel's breath speeds up and drops every now and then.

A car passes us, and right after I see Tic coming walking on the sidewalk. I look at Daniel, that looks at me. Then I step out of the car. He follows me silently, leaving the car in the alleyway, locking it behind him. Tic doesn't look our way, he hasn't seen us. Stepping in on the court he breathes out with an annoyed sound. His leather jacket reflects some of the light from the lamps above him and I realize that it's like this city's sign of a criminal. I have one, he has one, Eric has one. I shudder, crossing the street and entering the court.

"Long time no see." I stop a few feet away from him as he turns around, hands still in his pockets like they were when he came. His brown eyes searches mine as he takes a step forward holding out his hand.

"Indeed." I take his hand and he pulls me close to him to dunk me lightly on my back, bro style. We let go and I look him up and down. What has it been now, five days, since I left and he looks a whole lot worse. He got bags under his eyes, more sunken in then before, and he seems to have lost some serious weight because his jacket hangs too loosely on his shoulders. "You seem to have survived well I see." I nod.

"Heard I was wanted for money." He nods, licking his bottom lip as of habit.

"Five hundred." He cocks his head to the side quickly. "Much for anyone to spend on wanting someone dead." I groan.

"Don't even talk about it." Shaking my head I try to clear my mind. "I need you help. I'm guessing he's still looking for me, two hundred ain't the amount of money you give up for nothing. So, do you know anywhere I can hide? Where won't he find me?" Tic brings up his right hand, rubbing his neck. His knuckles is busted, as often.

"I don't know, anywhere." Before he can continue I hear cars coming close, many, and they don't exactly sound like a parade of evening drivers on their way home. I look at Tic. He looks at me with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry, I had to."

Daniel swears behind me, and I turn around to see a black car come running down the street. Fuck. The window rolls down as the driver make a U-turn, and from it flies bullets. More cars comes flying down the street, all of them with gun men ready in the passanger seat. Bullets whistle through the air and hits the ground, cracking the hard material up. My feet flies across the street and against our car, Daniel actually behind me, considering that he was closer to the road. God are we lucky, because just like in the movies, not a single bullet hits us....I think, and then I hear Daniel shout out in pain. I turn around as I get in to the alley, trying to take cover by the car. He's hit in the arm. Damnit. Shakily he pulls up his keys from his pocket, unlocking the car and getting inside. Quickly I open my door as well and get inside. Daniel is applying pressure to his wound, pushing the key in and turning. The engine wakes up and he turns out on the street.

"Where are we going?" I almost shout. Daniel turns to me as three more bullets hit the back window.

"Out of town." He yells over the sound of glass being shattered.

"Okey, then turn here." He doesn't question it, he just jerks the wheel the way I cock my head. Then we both get up to check where we're going. The road is free, so as he turns to look behind us Daniel increases the speed, hitting hundred and ten miles per hour. "Turn!" He looks back forward and turns right, then left and we're out of the worst part of the city.

"Fucking bastard." He mumbles as I sit there quiet. "I wish I could go back there and beat him up." The houses gets lower and lower, further and further apart. I don't see anyone behind us, but I still shoot worried glances in the side mirror.

"What about your things?" I wonder when he's quiet down his cursing. "They're still at the motel." He nods, still looking at the street. The lights sweep over his features, showing his lips tightly pushed together. I suddenly remember that he gave back the key to the owner. So that's why. He knew this was coming? "How come you returned the key before we left? And you had done it the day you picked me up as well, hadn't you?" He nods again.

"I'd hate for the man lose one of his roomkeys because I was killed or kidnapped." He turns again, and I can only catch a glimpse of blue lights before we turn the corner. How does he even know where we're going? I nod. He finally slows down to normal speed, and I suddenly realize we've gone way too fast for me to be turned to face him, instead of being glued to the back of my seat.

"Where do we go now?" I look out on the fields that suddenly have appeared. Are there farms out side my city? I never knew. Daniel pulls up to the side of the road, shutting of the lights making his car nearly invisible in the dark. He turns to me.

"Do you have any parents we can go to?" I shake my head.

"I know where they live, Iowa, but I would never visit them. I just talk to them once every Christmas. We have nothing to do with each other. They don't know I'm criminal, and we got a healthy relationship. I'm not going there." He pouts his lip as he thinks.

"Well, get me the map in the door." He points at a neatly folded, but oh so worn down map with red border that peaks up in the passenger door. I take it up and hand it to him. He opens it and looks at it for a good thirty seconds before turning attention back to me. "Say a number between one and six."

"Okey, well two."

"Las Vegas." He looks at me, and it comes out as a question.

"They would never look for me there, because everyone knows I wouldn't go there..." I say thoughtfully.

"And they would look for you there because it's the perfect place for a thief to hide." Daniel continues. I nod with a grin.

"Perfect." Daniel starts the engine back up after looking over his shoulder. The city glitters behind us as the car rolls back onto the road.

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I wake up to the same CD I found in the car's player earlier today. Or was Yesterday now? I look up, we're on the highway, and Daniel looks tired as hell. The clock shows four am. He's been driving for four hours, in the middle of the night, after he's been awake all day. We are going to crash.

"Hey." I poke his arm as I sit up properly. "Drive to the side, I wanna drive." He turns to me, giving me a smile that startles me a bit. A smile my brain combines with the words 'baby girl'.

"I can't. We're on the high way." He laughs a bit as he turns back to the road. "Remember your driving classes? You can't pull over just like that on a high way."

"Then get of it." I'm fully turned his way now. "There's an exit in just five minutes." I point to a sign that conveniently appeared above the road. Daniel laughs again, and when the exit comes he actually turns on the blinker and pulls off the high way to a calmer road. After a short while on the smaller road a gas station comes up on our right and he turns in there. I quickly get out and round the car. "Get yo fat ass out."

Daniel just smiles.

"Okey, okey." He gets out and goes around to the other side. As soon as he sits down I see his eyelids drop. "Do you know how to drive this kinda car?"

"Duh, it changes gears of itself, I can accelerate as high or as low as I want without having to worry. I got this." I turn the key and Daniel closes his eyes.

"Okey." The car slowly rolls out from the station, and back out to the road, to later hit the high way. Daniel's head falls to the side and I know he is asleep. I turn the CD back on, focusing on learning the lyrics just as much as I'm focusing on the road. Cars go in the other direction, heading for a now much less safe Seattle. I start singing along to the music as the clock ticks to six thirty am.