Chapter 16: The Game Begins

  Eve found herself blinded as the bright glare of the truck’s headlights dazzled her. A second later she was plunged into pitch black darkness. While she was unable to see, Eve once more felt the ground tremble as the truck sped towards her.

  Reacting to the sensation, Eve moved almost effortlessly out of the truck’s path, despite her lack of vision.

  “I assume that means you accept my offer?” Eve asked with a smirk, as her sight returned to her. She turned around to see the truck getting in position to take another shot.

  After steadying herself for the next assault, Eve cupped her hands and yelled at the truck. “Is that really the best ya got?”

  Wheeler revved his engine, preparing to take another run at Eve. All the while he could hear Abeona’s voice cheering him on. “Wheeler, Wheeler, he’s our truck, If he can’t do it, then we are fu...”

  *HONK* Wheeler’s horn blared out in frustration as Eve evaded him once more. For several hours, Wheeler and Eve played this game of high stakes cat and mouse around the construction site. Eve weaving expertly between the collection of pipes, barrels, cinder blocks and other miscellaneous obstacles that littered the site.

  As the sun slowly peeked over the horizon, signalling the dawn of a new day, Eve checked her watch. “Wow, time really does fly when you’re having fun.” She remarked.

  Despite his best efforts, Wheeler hadn’t been able to so much as graze the dodging daredevil. Let alone get a clean hit. She seemed to be constantly one step ahead. He’d come within inches of her, only for Eve to slip away from him.

  He’d almost wondered if Eve was toying with him, deliberately not dodging until the last possible second.

  Wheeler had no idea that in reality, this was simply Eve’s way of making things more exciting and increasing the level of the challenge for herself. It was like a game of chicken, seeing how close she could allow the truck to get before needing to dodge. A literal dance with death.

  “Remember,” Eve called out “As long as you leave me alone during the day, I’ll keep coming back here every night so you can challenge me again!” After giving that reminder of their deal, Eve departed for home.

  As Eve left, Abeona piped up to Wheeler “So were you actually trying to run her over?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Wheeler, somewhat confused by what the goddess was implying. “Of course I was. I’m trying my best here, she’s just too agile and fast for me to catch.”

  “Trying your best?” Abeona sneered in disbelief. “You were barely trying at all, You just kept charging straight at her.”

  “What else am I meant to do?” Wheeler complained.

  Abeona’s charm jumped off his rear-view mirror and onto his dashboard, stomping it’s tiny feet and waving her tiny arms. “Mix it up a bit, catch her off guard. Maybe use some of the special abilities I gave you? Be creative!”

  Wheeler was already well aware of Abeona’s idea of being ‘creative’. His newly repaired suspension shuddered, as his mind flashed back to the previous failed aerial assault on Eve.

  “Last time I tried that, you got me to drive off a roof.” He pointed out.

  Abeona’s charm figure blushed, poking awkwardly at Wheeler’s dashboard with her foot “Yeah well, we just need to keep your physical limits in mind this time.”

  “Please do.” Wheeler pleaded. “I don’t want to feel that pain again... speaking of feeling...”

  Wheeler re-engaged his haptic feedback. He had kept it off during the entire ‘training session’, just in case he had managed to catch Eve. The external sensations like the wind and the pressure of ground under his tires returned to him.

  “So with the agreement we made with Eve, we can’t attack her during the daytime.” Wheeler pointed out.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Yes and I think it’s best play by her rules.” Abeona remarked. “On the bright side, We now have the whole day to brainstorm some new strategies. So thinking caps on!”

  As Wheeler and Abeona strategized, Eve made it home and collapsed into her bed, her muscles burning from her night time misadventure. She fell into a deep sleep as fatigue caught up to her. Her body needed time to recover from the strain of her new truck based secret training regime.

  Only an hour later, her alarm rang, which was still pre-set for her usual wake up time. Today however, its alert went unheard. Eve snoozed through it out of exhaustion. It was about another hour later when a different sound roused her from her slumber. An extremely loud banging on her bedroom door, followed by a familiar voice calling out to her.

  “Eve, it’s Lily are you ok?”

  A somewhat hazy and dishevelled Eve finally rose from her bed and stumbled to the door. She shook herself into semi consciousness and took a deep breath. Whatever happened, Eve knew Lily couldn’t be allowed to find out what Eve had been up to.

  As Eve opened the door, she could see, even with her currently blurry, sleep encrusted eyes, the worried expression cast across Lily’s face.

  “Eve, are you ok?” Lily repeated. “You’re normally long gone by the time I get up.” She cast a concerned gaze over her friend noticing something amiss.

  “Oh iz nothin, juz woke up a itty bitty laaatt... *YAWN*” Eve’s slurred speech was broken up by a sudden yawn.

  “You look shattered.” Lily placed her hand onto Eve’s forehead, trying to check her friend’s temperature. “Are you ill?” she asked.

  After removing her hand from Eve’s head, Lily concluded, “Your temperature seems fine, but you’re clearly not yourself.”

  “Na I’m fin, juz ned sleeeeee.... zzzzz”. Eve began to fall forward as she fell to sleep on her feet.

  As Lily tried to catch her, Eve jolted awake and stumbled backwards towards her bed. “Eve’s no ear now, pleaz leaf a mess...” with that, the tired girl passed out, falling back onto her bed.

  Lily checked on her unconscious friend. “I better call college and let them know Eve isn’t coming in today.” She decided. “Hopefully she just needs some bedrest. She was probably just lying awake all night worrying about that truck.”

  Many hours later, Eve woke up. As her eyes flickered open, she saw Lily was sat by her bedside, her eyes still clouded with concern.

  “Hey sleepyhead, how you feeling?” Lily asked.

  A still groggy Eve sat up in her bed, noticing she was still in her tracksuit from the previous night. “Much better after that rest” she admitted.

  Lily took Eve’s hand, “It isn’t like you to crash out like that.” She paused before asking “Is it something to do with that truck?”

  “TRUCK?!” Eve sprung to life, her eyes darting away from her friends face, desperately attempting to hide her guilt. “What truck? Who said anything about a truck?”

  “The truck that spent the past week trying to run you over, the one you left the note on.” Lily reminded her, raising an eyebrow.

  “Ah yeah, that truck, ha ha ha.” An awkward laugh escaped Eve’s lips. She abruptly made a desperate attempt to change the topic of conversation “Wait, what’s the time?”

  “Four thirty PM” Lily told her, “Don’t worry about college, I already called and told them you weren’t coming in.”

  Eve grabbed Lily by her shoulders. “What did you tell them?”

  Lily blushed deeply in response to Eve’s close contact. “That you were ill...” she muttered. “I didn’t tell them this part, but I assume you’ve been worrying about that truck so much it made you sick.”

  Eve quickly dived on the excuse. “YES!” She yelled a little too loudly, “I WAS ILL, BUT I’M BETTER NOW!” She released Lily and jumped out of bed. “Must of been one of those twenty-four hour bug things...” she trailed off.

  “Are you sure?” Lily questioned. “You still seem a little off.”

  “I’m completely fine now.” Eve was rambling quickly, her voice brimming with nervous energy. “Well I may be a little hungry, are you hungry? Let’s get food! Let’s order PIZZA!”

  She then quickly pulled her phone from her tracksuit pocket. She then brought up a takeaway ordering app. Then, before Lily had any chance to give any input, Eve swiftly completed the order. “One big Veggie Pizza to share and... ordered!”

  Lily was taken aback by Eve’s haste, she could sense something was clearly off with Eve. After a moment of consideration, Lily decided not to push it for the time being. “Did you add extra mushrooms?” she asked.

  “Of course I did. I wouldn’t forget my bestie’s pizza preferences.” Eve declared proudly.

  “Thanks” Lily responded. The two girls then headed towards the lounge before Lily doubled back. “I just need to use the restroom.”

  Eve waved her phone in Lily’s direction. A little animation of a cartoon pizza could be seen dancing its way to their location. “Sure, I’ll keep track of our order.”

  As Lily disappeared into the bathroom, Eve’s enthusiastic facade crumbled away. She wiped beads of sweat from her forehead before thinking to herself. “Good, she doesn’t suspect a thing.”

  Meanwhile, Lily took a calming breath in the bathroom. “I better not mention the truck attacks, unless it shows up again.” She thought. “It’s clearly got her more rattled than she wants to let on.”

  Lily quietly hoped that one day, her friend Eve might open up to her more about it once she was ready.

  After concluding her business, Lily left the bathroom and made her way to the lounge, where she was greeted by Eve sitting on the sofa with a massive pizza box. “Ready for a girls night in bestie? You can pick the movie. Maybe later we can play Charades too?”

  Lily gave a shy smile. “Sure, sounds like fun.” She sat next to Eve and the pair settled down for a quiet evening in.