Chương 193: B4. 5.2 - Annoying Start of the Road Trip

"I'm going to drive?" I stared at the steering wheel.

"I've had experience before, but I—Hang on, why do I have to knock you out? Just touch your Guardian Angel as you did before."

"Gabe's telling me not to do that. Quickly, switch with me." Deen squeezed herself between the driver's and passenger's seats, clambering to the backseat.

"We'll puzzle over Gabe's instructions later. Follow him, for now."

"Are we still listening to Gabe after what happened last time?" Though I was hesitant about this whole thing, I transferred to the driver's seat. I hated being controlled by others, much more an entity that I couldn't see.

"I swear, if I'm going to be the bait again…"

"You won't be, I promise." Deen climbed to the passenger's seat.

"I'll be here with you, so Gabe will protect us both. No one's abandoning anyone. Now, push your seat forward. There's a lever at the side of—""I know," I snapped. I hated to be reminded of how short my legs were. My seat lurched, and I could finally reach the pedals without needing to lower myself. I had to lean forward to better see over the dashboard. If I sat like a not-so-short person, I wouldn't see what was right in front of the car. This was the second reason, after parking, that I didn't want to get a car.

To be accurate, Mom would get the car for my no-income, leech of a self.

"Do you know how to drive?" Deen asked.

"The wide pedal on the left is the brake, and the long pedal—""I know."

"—on the right is the accelerator. This is the shifter. You press this here and move it to 'D', which stands for—""Drive! I know." Annoying Deen was treating me like a kid.

"I don't even think I'd get to drive. How long will you need to be unconscious for?"

"A minute or two," Deen replied.

"My superhuman regeneration will quickly restore my consciousness, so you have to continually choke me."

"Top ten sentences I never expected my best friend to say," I muttered. As much as I wanted to hurt Deen for being annoying, I didn't like where this was going. A one-time strangulation seemed fine.

"Just touch your Guardian Angel already!"

"That's not the way! I assume that the Corebring or BID agent is nearby. Touching Gabe activates his power in a burst, becoming a beacon for our location. Choke me until I faint, count to ten—" I made a face.

"I seriously don't want to do this."

"—and choke me again. I trust that you won't end up killing me. Otherwise, Gabe would also warn me about it."

"Instead of this kinky weirdness, we'll go with your swimming plan," I said.

"Get out of the car and swim across the river. I'll see you on the other side."

"Anyone watching will find it odd that I'm leaving." Deen fully reclined her seat and lay down, fixing her hair under her head.

"We can't have people in the other cars see you choke me," she answered my questioning look. I sighed.

"Fine… I'll do it." I wanted to find doing this to Deen enjoyable—it'd be revenge for all the times she had bothered me. But it felt very wrong. Deen grabbed my arms, clamping her fingers around my wrist. She pulled my hands to her neck.

"We don't have much time," she said, looking up at me.

"Gabe's yelling in my ear that you should do it now. I used both hands to get a good grip on her throat. I closed my fingers around her neck, shuddering upon feeling her warmth. The pliable texture of skin also felt disgusting to my touch. I couldn't help but grimace. Physical contact signified closeness with another person. Emotional closeness. I didn't want that. I'd rather punch Deen than choke her.

"It's fine, Erind," Deen said. I could feel her throat moving under my thumbs and palms as she spoke.

"You shouldn't feel guilty," she added, completely misunderstanding my hesitation. I tightened my grip on Deen's throat. Feeling the pulse on the sides of her neck almost made me let go. I dug my fingers into her flesh, pressing down on the arteries and veins on the sides of her neck. Before, I thought that being unable to breathe was what made people faint during strangulation. But I learned from watching true crime documentaries that cutting off blood flow was the cause. I also squeezed her trachea.

Restricting oxygen through strangulation should be difficult for my tiny hands, but I had super strength. I could tear off Deen's neck if I wanted to. Though Deen's body felt human, there was an inhuman durability to it that was difficult to describe. Almost magical. I had to exert superstrength to crush her throat. Deen winced. She must be feeling pain. She did a little shimmy a little as I continued closing my hands.

"Don't look at me," I muttered.

"Close your eyes or something."

"So you know… I'm… still conscious…" Deen managed to say with much effort. Which meant my own efforts were very much lacking.

"At least don't look me in the eye." My main concern was accidentally snapping Deen's neck. Adumbrae could no longer regenerate if there was severe damage to the brain or the spine. The same probably worked for those with artificial Cores like Deen. However, Deen was also right that Gabe would say if I might kill her.

"I'm so sorry, Deen," I said without meaning it before seriously strangling her. I squeezed harder, taking care not to angle my fingers inward. I wanted to strangle her, not stab her neck and spread blood everywhere. Deen's windpipe collapsed under my grasp. The circumference of my grip became smaller. She jerked her body, her eyes widening from the sudden pain. A couple of smaller thrashes she couldn't stop. Then she started coughing. Blood bubbled out of the side of her lips and streaked down her cheeks.

I probably didn't need to crush her trachea, but I had to make sure she'd faint. Just cutting the blood flow might not be enough to overcome her regeneration. Yep, that was definitely it. Not that I wanted to cause her pain. I kept my best friend down, maintaining pressure on her throat. She turned pale, her watering eyes becoming out of focus. She held my arms. I raised a brow. She nodded, which I took to mean that I should continue. If she had shaken her head, she'd be saying to stop, right?

Quickly looking around, I noted that the people in the surrounding cars hadn't noticed something weird was happening in their midst. Then, Deen relaxed. Her eyes closed. That's it, right? I maintained my grip for a couple more seconds for good measure. I released my hold and observed with fascination the purplish welts I left on her deformed neck. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Okay, okay, okay." I touched Deen's chest. Was it moving? Maybe. I lowered my ear to her mouth to listen for breathing. A blaring horn made me jump.

"The fuck?" The car behind us honked again. I faced front. Our line had moved. Settling in the driver's seat, I pushed the shifter to 'Drive'. I lightly pressed the accelerator, wary of shooting forward. Crunching noises. The car didn't move. Something was wrong.

"The stupid hand brake," I muttered, pushing it down. Finally, I could drive the car forward. As easy as taking candy from a baby. People make it sound like taking candies from babies was a bad thing, but babies shouldn't have sweets in the first place. Check all the babies and confiscate all their candies! The giddiness from my success fueled the random thoughts in my head. Keep focus! I should choke Deen again in a bit. This wasn't very satisfying compared to hitting her. And what was the incoming threat?

Was that… it? I leaned left, pressing my cheek against the window while trying to get a better view of something moving in between the lines of vehicles. Scuttling was the apt term because it moved on several spindly legs. I shifted away from the window as a drone half the size of our car scuttled past. With the odd-looking gun turret on its back, it was about the same height as the car. Fortunately, it didn't pay any attention to us. But the danger wasn't over.

Another Skitter—I think that was what they were called—was coming down the right side. My hands flew to Deen's throat. It had mostly regained its shape. I squeezed hard to crush her windpipe for the second time, closing her throat for several seconds. Her blood flow was also cutoff. Her unconscious body twitched. The second Skitter passed us with no issue. This is no fun, I thought, releasing Deen's neck. I wanted my best friend awake to see her reaction while bothering her as payback for bothering me.

"The fuck is that?" I squinted, moving closer to the windshield. The line of two lanes to our left moved under a large machine. Some kind of scanner? As we moved closer, I realized what it was—a box-shaped ComExo that stood on two very tall legs. It was a model unlike any I had ever seen before, loaded with various thingamajigs, most likely sensors, and sporting a BID logo on its side. This was the threat that Gabe had foreseen.

"We are innocent…We are innocent," I sang, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel in tune with the melody of a popular song.

"Don't kill us… We're innocent." And nothing happened. Though the large ComExo was behind us, I strangled Deen one last time for good measure. The traffic moved faster as the freeway branched out. I drove onwards to Riverside, the other cars exiting La Esperanza going to various other destinations.

"That's it?" I asked the universe, sort of expecting one last problem. But there was none.

"That's it! We're out!" I cackled like a deranged witch steering a cauldron. Passing parked police cars made me feel like a robber in a heist movie successfully escaping with my loot. Really rare for me to get super excited at anything, but I couldn't help but be relieved that we left the city with barely any problems. Sometimes, the main character wins without difficulties. Just a feel-good movie. We didn't always need conflict for a story. Did strangling Deen count as conflict?

Best delete that weirdness from my memory. I continued with my 'We Are Innocent' song, driving slowly to piss off people behind me.

"Wha-what are you singing?" Deen asked, pushing herself up. She coughed while rubbing her throat.

"Is… everything alright?"

"You tell me." I veered to the side of the road to park the car. That was enough driving. I wanted Amber Deen Leska to be my chauffeur the whole way to Vegas.

"What does your Guardian Angel say?"

"Nothing. We're safe now. Thank goodness that—wait. What are you doing?" Deen asked as I transferred to the backseat.

"Don't you want to drive?"

"I-I… You see, I get nervous when I drive. Like, I know how. But all this stuff… I might crash, or I might hit someone, or I—""I understand," Deen said, moving to the driver's seat.

"I don't want you to stress yourself. I know you're already feeling guilty for what you did to me. Know that you did what was necessary." Oh, you think I feel guilty? Sure, I'd go with that. I completed our switcheroo by climbing to the passenger's seat, where I belonged.

"I know that. Doesn't make me feel better about it. I can still feel your throat in my hands!" I probably shouldn't have added that last line, but it was true. The sensation of a collapsing windpipe was satisfying, like squeezing an empty plastic bottle. Deen brushed her hair aside to show me her neck.

"No more marks. No more pain. It's all gone now, so don't beat yourself up over it." She was giving me drama fuel.

"I… I'm really sorry, Deen. I'll have nightmares about your face. I'm not saying you're ugly! It's just that… when you passed out, it looked like you were dying. You were really dying!" Deen held my shoulders. Maybe choking her wasn't so bad after all.

"Erind, look at me. Don't cry." I clenched my jaw to stop myself from bursting out laughing. I met her eyes, nodding.

"I'll be alright."

"I'll buy you ice cream later if you won't cry." I rolled my eyes.

"Don't treat me like a kid."

"There we go. Distracted you there, didn't I?" Deen laughed.

"Let's get going now. This will help you relax." Deen turned off the air conditioning and opened the windows. She played relaxing jazz beats on the speakers as we savored the cooling air of dusk. We cruised through the sort of empty streets of Riverside, gal pals who definitely weren't into choking. With the music in the background, we might as well be in a music video. Deen was the singer. I was the random extra the director picked from the street at the last minute because they were lacking people.

I chatted with Deen instead of trying, or at least faking, to fall asleep. We avoided serious topics like Dario's organization, the PCM, the Corebrings, and how I'd hide when the future came that they'd hunt. Anything school-related soon dried up, and we moved our conversation to Mom. It was obvious that Deen would like to trade my mother with hers.

"How about your parents?" I asked Deen. I barely knew anything about them. What kind of uncaring best friend was I?

"My parents are there," she simply replied.

"But also, not." By her tone, I knew she didn't want to continue the topic.

"I think someone is tailing us." Weird segue to avoid talking about her parents. I checked the rearview mirror.

"Which car?"

"The gray SUV. It's been there for the past five minutes."

"We're all heading in the same direction," I said.

"Other cars have probably been around for the past several minutes, too. Try parking next to that tree. Let's see what the gray SUV will do." The gray SUV slowly drove past, displaying the logo of the California Highway Patrol on its door. It parked a few feet in front of us. It didn't have any flashing lights that cops tucked onto regular vehicles, and I doubted we were pulled over for speeding or anything.

"Trouble," I said.

"Gabe's silent," Deen said.

"Trouble. But we can get ourselves out of this. I'll handle the talking. I'm not being bossy—I simply don't want you to stress yourself. The cop is coming."

"What's the difference between tan and khaki?" I asked, eyeing the color of the cop's uniform.

"Like, we can get tanned at the beach. No one says we can get khakied at the beach, right?"

"Not the time, Erind," Deen said.

"I bet he's either with Dario or the PCM. Which one will you pick? I'll pick the other."

"Shush, now. He's here." Deen lowered her window and spoke in a sickeningly sweet voice, "Good evening, officer. Is anything wrong?" The cop took out a notebook and started scribbling on it.

"Ma'am, please don't be alarmed. I'm only here to pass on a message from Auron."