DON'T FALL IN LOVE WITH ME - LJZ

4:00am

Did Lucas know this was a bad idea when this first began? Yes. Did he know that this would involve them doing a very dangerous sport in illegal conditions? Of course not. And did Atlas care? Not in the slightest.

This guy, who they now know as Malachi, has infuriated Atlas. How dare he think he could just walk around and do something so awful to somebody, and then get away with it. Just because he's "the champ". Oh please, he's no better than a fucking coward. Or at least, that's what Atlas thought.

Now, you see, let's take you back to before there were two people sitting in there cars. One crashed, and one was victorious.

Drag racing is not something that is taken lightly, and especially not with these people. Most people make money from gambling, playing poker, making some dumb bets with their friends. These guys betted on them. More specifically, they betted on pwho would win the race. The newbie or the champ. Who would you pick? Needless to say, no one saw this coming.

Now the crash quite honestly wasn't anyone's fault but the driver. To busy trying to throw the enemy off, they sent themselves spiraling. They lost control over themselves trying to control someone else. They lost their own mind, in an attempt to get into someone else's. Interesting, is it not?

Now let's go back to the two competitors. Sitting in their cars. Icy gazes locked on the road ahead, but was intended to be towards the other. The roads were empty. The round they were going on was very simple. Cross the bridge, make you turn, first one here wins. Simple, so it seemed.

Malachi was a good driver. After all, he had to earn his title somehow. But his downfall, as well as the downfall of many others, was his arrogance. He overestimates himself. Placing himself above anyone else, whether or not he knew who this person was was trivial. It meant nothing. After all, no one could beat him, right?

Their engines were revving. The cheers in the background were deafening. Lucas had a look of what appeared to be dread and anxiety on his face. This could go horribly wrong, and he was aware of that. He immediately regretted not just telling to let it go. That it wasn't worth her time. That he wasn't worth her time. But it's too late now.

A girl, maybe about 16 years old, came up and stood in front of both cars. She had 2 flags in her hands. Her brown hair had pink and some faded blonde streaks in it. She began raising both flags. As they came up and met the dark horizon, both cars zoomed past. It had begun.

The one thing Atlas felt in this moment was determination. She was going to win. She wasn't going to let this guy get what he wanted as he so clearly always seems to do. As they were racing down the road, they could see the bridge coming up ahead. Malachi pressed harder on the gas pedal, motivated and refusing to allow his title to be taken away from him by an outsider.

Malachi was beginning to feel as if that just might happen though.

Allow me to make something clear to you, fear makes people do things. Things that they never thought they ever would or could do. Fear is something that works it's way into one's veins, refusing to leave until the thing that has inflicted it came to pass. Fear takes ahold on you, and makes you it's prisoner. It makes you into the very thing you never wanted to be. Malachi's character truthfully could've never been told by his actions. He was under an influence. The influence of fear. One of, if not, the strongest influence of them all.

Malachi began easing his car towards Atlas'. It was headed towards the driver's side.

He knew the consequences, he didn't care.

He knew one of the could very likely end up dead, he didn't care.

He kept inching towards her. Closer, and closer, and closer. He didn't see what was coming up ahead. He didn't see the fork in the road.