• Chapter III: part 5



    AFTER COUGHING two more times, I moaned dramatically with my head lain down on one of the coffee tables.

    “Feeling any better?” Julie asked sarcastically as she sat down in the seat next to me. Sniffling, I covered my head with my arms.
    I definitely wasn't in the mood to deal with her lecturing. She sighed and leaned on her elbow. Although I couldn't see her, I knew exactly what look she was giving me.

    “You're crazy you know that? Seriously, Kida, you could've gotten really sick! I still think you should've gone to the emergency room.”

    “I don't need to go to the hospital,” I said through my nose, followed by three loud coughs. I moaned in agony.
    “Kida, what were you thinking?” She sounded like my mother.

    I sighed and sniffed again. Without lifting my head, I replied, “Winning. What else?”
    She was silent for a moment, but I could hear her shuffling in her seat, most likely contemplating whether or not she should leave me alone.
    “Winning? So I suppose that winning some insignificant race is more important than your
    health?”

    I shrugged, uncaring, and coughed violently a few times. After a moment of silence, Julie sighed and leaned back in her seat.
    “Well…how satisfying was the look on Vincent's face when you beat him?” she asked in an attempt to lighten the mood. Not knowing how to answer the question, I just shook my head and sniffled. “Kida,” she began slowly. “You did win didn't you?”

    I sighed and lifted my head up from the table, staring blankly at the rack of CDs ahead of me.
    “I lost.” Hearing the words come out of my mouth made me finally accept the fact that I didn't win...and reminded me that I should have. Especially at the speed I was going.

    “You lost?” Julie asked incredulously. “How?”
    I shook my head slowly, not taking my eyes off the CD rack. “Julie, I've never ran so fast before.”

    Unsure of how to respond, she rested her chin thoughtfully on her hand. “Hm. So I'm guessing that Vincent is one fast guy,” she said with an inquiring tone.
    Did she know that there was more to the story? But I couldn't tell her how fast I'd actually run, nor how fast Vincent had run. Nor the fact that Vincent wasn't the least bit effected by the weather! I groaned internally and leaned back in my seat. More than anything, I just wanted to get this off my chest. Julie was my best friend. She deserved to know.

    “Julie—” I paused to think my words over carefully. “Julie, Vincent—” I stopped abruptly and jerked my head toward the door because out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone move swiftly outside.

    Who was that?
    “Vincent what?” Julie asked impatiently.
    I narrowed my eyes and peered curiously outside. Could it have been Vincent? The thought infuriated me. Why was he following me again? It seemed like Vincent was becoming more and more suspicious, and it was as if he knew something that I didn't.

    “Kida,” Julie said annoyed. I stood up suddenly. “Where are you going?”
    “Outside. I need a breath of fresh air.”
    She stood up quickly, knocking her chair backwards. “But what about Vincent?”

    Rolling my eyes, I started walking toward the door. “He's fast.” I looked over my shoulder. “I've been beaten before! It's no big deal!” I thought I heard an annoyed huff, but I was just happy that she wasn't following me.

    I wanted to talk to Vincent alone. After I opened the door, my suspicions were verified. Vincent stood leaned against the wall right outside the entrance. He was wearing a big leather jacket and an old-school black fedora hat.

    He peered at me from under the rim of his hat and smiled crookedly. “Kida,” he said politely with a slight nod of his head.
    Crossing my arms, I asked, “So...where have you been?”

    ***

    Vincent
    I WINCED as I listened to Kida cough violently a couple of times. After all, it was my fault that she was in such a bad condition, but I wanted to test her out. She was much faster than I thought she'd be, especially for one of her age.

    Even so, her body wasn't accustomed to such strenuous activity. It's a good thing that coach showed up, though. I was ready to tell her everything.

    To get it off my chest and move on with my life.
    “I lost,” Kida said blankly. I couldn't help but emit a small laugh. And she thought that I was arrogant.

    “You lost? How?” Julie asked unbelievably.
    It was then, though, that I questioned how long I was planning on staying in this town. Already, a couple of days had gone by, and we'd made absolutely no progress. Things would have to start moving a lot quicker; otherwise the situation would become significantly worse.

    For the both of us.
    “Julie—” Kida began
    It was obvious by her tone of voice that she was getting ready to confess everything that happened during that race.

    Certainly she knows better. Peeking around the corner through the door, I knew that I had to stop her.

    “Julie, Vincent—” She stopped abruptly after noticing me from the corner of her eye. I quickly began to run the other way, but something stopped me.
    Something subconsciously.

    I winced underneath my hat, and flinched surprisingly, as Kida pushed the door open with intended force. Smiling as confidently as I could, I nodded.

    “Kida.”
    I was forced to swallow a knot in my throat when I looked at her. Under the lighting of the moon, her skin appeared to have a silver, metallic glow, and her eyes glimmered a dark, crimson red. They undeniably had the same exotic features. My hand twitched involuntarily when I thought of running my fingertips across her soft, delicate face.

    “So where have you been?” she asked accusingly. The way she crossed her arms and pursed her lips reminded me so much of that woman.
    I clenched my fist and stuffed my hands in my pockets, forcing a courteous smile. “What do you mean?”

    “Don't give me that! You know exactly what I mean.”
    I looked at her crookedly.

    “After the race...you disappeared.” She glared at me fiercely, and a shiver traced its way down my spine.

    Yes, she was definitely just like that woman.
    “That's because your coach showed up,” I said evasively.
    With a look of disbelief, she took a step forward, and my body involuntarily stepped back. Confused, she moved back to her original position, and I was able to relax.

    “Right. I'm supposed to believe that.”
    I shrugged nonchalantly.

    Obviously annoyed, she did a strange gesture with her hands as she threw her arms up in the air and dropped them to her sides defeated. It was difficult not to laugh, and she must have noticed the look on my face because she quickly shot me a warning glance.

    “You never answered my question.”
    “What question,” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Kida swallowed hard and looked down at the ground.

    “You know what question,” she began more confidently. “How did you do that?”
    I clenched my teeth and took a warning step toward her, but surprisingly she didn't move. “Do what?”

    Her eyes flashed angrily toward mine, and as much as I wanted to avert them, they were glued.
    She groaned. “Would you stop evading my questions with questions! You know what I'm talking about! How the hell did you run like that? No human is that fast!”

    “You weren't that far behind me,” I said bitterly. That was probably the wrong thing to say because the color suddenly drained from her face, and her eyes widened to twice their size.

    “What do mean by that?”
    If there was ever a time to tell her, now was it. “I mean—”
    It would be so easy.

    “That—” I took a deep breath. “I mean that you were pretty quick yourself.” She shot me a glance filled with suspicion.
    “That's not answering the question,” she said taking a step forward.

    With a smirk, I said, “No. It's not.”
    Her eyes narrowed, but she didn't persist. The situation had become more intense than I'd first anticipated, and the craving for a smoke slowly crept up on me. Reaching into my pocket, I grabbed a cigarette and started to light it.

    “What do you think you're doing,” Kida asked vehemently.
    Looking at her like she was stupid, I said obviously, “Because I want to smoke. What else?” Why did she care? After all, it's not like it was going to hurt me.

    I heard a noise to my left, and saw Kida tapping on a sign that read “No Smoking.” With a short, abrupt laugh, I brought my lighter up to my cigarette.

    “So what.”
    The cigarette was suddenly jerked out of my mouth, and Kida stomped on it with her shoe, grinding it into the cement. I couldn't even imagine the kind of look I was giving her. She had some kind of guts doing that. Then I remembered.

    This happened before...with her.
    The memory caused my body to involuntarily take a step toward her. She gasped and slammed her back into the brick wall, and that's when Julie came bombarding through the doors.

    “Hey guys,” she said cheerfully as always. Both our bodies were frozen in place, our eyes glued to each other.

    She looked so frightened, like I was going to hurt her. To be honest, I wasn't sure what I was planning on doing. It's a good thing Julie walked through the door when she did.

    “Hey, Vincent.” She looked suspiciously at both of us. “What's going on?”

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