Afterlight ✔️

chapter eighteen

— Chloe Romano

Just when I thought I was safe.

Dean's crew believed it would be necessary to come chase Justin and I while we were speeding away on his motorcycle, leaving me a little confused as to why there would be more people in his gang. A few minutes prior, they were in the garage of the warehouse, preparing to come and get me and Justin. I could say that obviously, somewhere along that path, we lost them. Justin continued to speed away just in case. I held onto him with all of my strength, bringing my body closer to his. I rested my chin on his right shoulder, trying to get a sense of direction, but all I saw were trees. Justin and I weren't wearing helmets, so the wind was blowing straight through our hair and eyes as we travelled along the highway with such a force I thought my head would fall off. It was my first time riding on a motorcycle and I prayed Justin wouldn't make an accident, one little mistake and our lives will be over. The lack of helmets just topped it all off.

Soon enough, I started to feel the presence of the van behind me so I cocked my head around to see what was going on. There as I guessed, was the van speeding right after us. The drivers didn't look too happy. Matter of fact, as I turned around, the van started to accelerate even more.

"Justin, hurry up! They're catching up with us!" I screeched in his ear, squeezing him around the torso in full blown nervousness.

Justin started to speed up, hunching his back in the process. It was clear that he was trying to get as far away from the van as possible. Loud bangs were fired at us and I jerked my head around to see the guys in the vans, holding guns in their hands, pointing them at us. I held onto Justin even tighter, trying to stay calm, but there was no point. That was when I realized the tears started to flow in my eyes, once again.

"Justin, they're shooting at us!" I screamed in panic, holding on for dear life.

"You think I don't know that?" Justin growled. He started to swerve the motorcycle in different patterns, attempting to dodge the bullets. Praying it would work, I placed my chin on his shoulder once again, squeezing my eyes shut in preparation of if I'd actually get shot. "They won't get us, I promise!"

More shot guns were fired and I let out a scream of horror. "Justin!" I weeped out, feeling warm tears stream down my face, then blow away in the wind. I shot open my eyes to see a tight curve in the road. Justin didn't slow down for the sharp turn as he continued to speed through the streets. I squeezed my eyes shut, once more, knowing there was an accident, waiting to happen.

"Hang on!" I heard Justin warn me.

I opened my eyes to see Justin drive right over the curve, straight into the trees. He began to dodge each and every one of the trees, and I could tell he had amazing reflexes, but where was he taking me? I began to realize that the van was no longer behind us, thankfully we lost them. Justin continued to drive through the trees, just to make sure that they weren't following us and I heard was the engine of the motorcycle and the crunching of the leaves.

After a couple of minutes, he suddenly stopped. Abruptly, he hopped off of the motorcycle and snatched me off with him, kicking the kickstand before tackling me to the ground. I fell stomach first as he covered my mouth, with his body laying right on top of mine. I panted into his hand, trying not to cry.

"Stay down until I know the coast is clear." He whispered gruffly into my ear while continuing to keep my mouth covered. I nodded, following his directions.

A couple of minutes passed and I forced myself to stop crying. The coast was clear. Justin got up on his feet, putting his hand out to help me up. I grabbed onto it. standing back up, brushing myself off. I peered up to see Justin running his hand through his hair, a worried look in this face.