Chapter 20- Proned

Lanie's POV:

Yshmael speed up the motorbike until we finally got out of Hemisphere Village.

We kept running but slowed down a bit unlike before.

I knew it was past noon when we arrived at the Aronzaga mansion but I did not think we would stay there for a long time. 

I could not feel the flow of time so I was a little surprised to see the sunset near the east.

The scenery adds to the seemingly bad weather that darkens the clouds and cools the afternoon breeze. 

Yshmael was not driving that fast but I could feel the cold touch of the wind on me. There was also a strange horror in my neck as if someone was watching us.

We reached exactly the town center when Yshmael stopped along with other vehicles to give way to the vehicles coming from the other side of the road. There are lots of establishments and it's a bit noisy in this part of the town.

Yshmael removed his helmet and took something from his pocket. He simply handed it to me.

"Put this on, don't be too obvious." He said. He did not give me time to ask because he immediately put something in his ear before putting on the helmet. 

I looked at the small black object in my palm. I was shocked when I saw what it is. An earpiece.

Even though I could not understand what he wanted to say, I just decided to follow him. I simply looked at the number next to the traffic light. Just a few seconds and the cars on our side will run again.

I pretended to fan myself and act as if I was feeling hot. I took off my helmet and messed up my hair because of the heat I was supposed to feel. I simply inserted the small instrument into my right ear before putting the helmet back on. 

I saw Yshmael getting ready, I looked at the traffic light, at the number next to it.

Ten seconds left.

"Do you hear me, Maelanie?"

I was a bit stunned to hear Yshmael's clear voice in my ear. That's the ear piece's purpose, so that even if the surroundings are noisy or he drove fast, we can still talk properly. 

I looked again at the blinking red number in front of us.

Five seconds.

"I'll be in my full speed." I heard him. "Hold tightly."

I gulped when he said that. I was suddenly nervous about Yshmael's actions. 

I looked at him in the side mirror, he met my eyes in the mirror.

"We're being followed, Maelanie."

He said, making me froze for a second.

"One second," he reminded me.

As the sign signaled "go", Yshmael's drove fast. I immediately tightened my grip on his waist for fear I would fall and be caught by anyone following us. 

The wind became more violent and even with my helmet on I could still feel it.

Yshmael quickly got through the vehicles, some of them suddenly braked when Yshmael overtook without hesitation.

My heart was pounding, faster than it's normal. Fear, nervousness and adrenaline rush are coming together.

Every time the motor tilted, I tilted my body too, and every time we passed an uneven road, I can't help it but to curse in my mind. 

I tried to peek in the side mirror of the motor, two cars seemed to follow us. Their behavior is obvious because of all the vehicles, those cars are only that seems to be chasing us.

I think we spent an hour wandering around as the two vehicles followed us. 

I hugged Yshmael tighter when I felt him speeding up. All I can see is the dust we left.

It was only then that I noticed that the darkness had finally filled the sorrounding and we were in some place. 

There are only a few houses and they are still far from each other. The gorge is on our left and a wall of a seemingly flat mountain is on the right.

Yshmael speed up again. I almost admire his driving skills, if only we are not in this situation. For several times he almost lost those who were chasing us. 

We were close to a crossing when I heard Yshmael's weak murmur.

"Damn it!"

I almost fly in front of him when he suddenly braked. Fortunately, I pressed myself against the motor and held on tightly to him. 

He turned back to where we came from, which made me scared.

I quickly looked at the group of seemingly policemen at the crossing and two police mobiles. It looks like there's a checkpoint here. 

"What are you doing ?!" I asked aloud. And if he did not pull his motorbike again, I would have gone down to ask for help. I can run to the police and I'm sure they've noticed us because only the sound of Yshmael's motor could be heard here.

"Trap!" He answered immediately. "Maelanie, don't ever let go!" With that said, we speed up more. 

I could feel the trembling of each of my muscles as I realized what he meant.

I even saw the seeming skepticism of the two vehicles following us when they saw we were going to meet them.

Yshmael took advantage of that and adjusted his speed. Before the two drivers of the cars could drive, we passed between them.

Yshmael wasted no time, he accelerated his speed to increase our distance from our pursuers. It is also a big help that only two vehicles can fit on the road at the same time, the two cars will not be able to drive fast, they will have to give way to each other.

But they're not done yet, because we were only a few minutes away when I saw in the side mirror some motors that were also trying to chase us. 

I want to cry in frustration. We are in the darker part of Hespheria and the light I see is too far away from us. The only thing I could see clearly was the gorge on our side illuminated by the motor light.

"Plan B," Yshmael said out of nowhere.

Somehow I calmed down. Unfortunately, I do not know what kind of plan he was thinking.

"I'll count, on three, we'll jump."

"What?" I screamed. I don't care if his ear got hurt at my voice.

"Trust me." He only said. "One."

The motorbike speed up again, at the same time the light went out. 

"Two." He said emphatically. 

I tried not to panic when he moved in front of me and hugged me. The motor was not moving properly and my foot almost landed on the ground so I could feel the weeds on the edge of the ravine.

"Three." It seemed like a whisper. Yshmael hugged me tightly before I felt us both rise, get off the motor, and we almost threw our bodies down the steep precipice.

We rolled around and before I could close my eyes due to the pain caused by the rocks hitting my body I saw the light in the air. Light from where we came from. I even heard a loud explosion. The motorcycle we were riding on earlier exploded. 

"Get up!" Yshmael ordered and removed my helmet.

I'm breathing heavily as I tried looking at Yshmael, with the help of the dim light given by the peeping moon I saw him take off his jacket and wrap it around me. 

"Cover yourself, we need to get away from it. I'm sure they won't stop looking for us once they see no body." He said and gripped the two helmets tightly. The man seems to have no plans to leave any trace. He's really smart.

I saw him look up so I looked up too. The weeds and trees were hiding us from here but somehow I could still see how steep we were. We were lucky there were no big and sharp stones, or else we were wounded now or worst, something bad might happen.

I wrapped myself in the jacket he gave me and held out my hand to him. 

He held my hand tightly and crawled as we moved away. We followed the opposite direction of where we jumped down.

We walked, crawled and sometimes even ran just to get away. I guess that's all we did for an hour. I just don't know if we are going up or down the cliff. 

I will also soon believe Yshmael as he said he memorized the whole Hespheria. It was as if he knew exactly where he was going and he looked like a nocturnal creature because he was able to move despite the darkness around him.

We walked for another half hour before I saw a seemingly small hut in the middle of the thickets. 

"We are in the eastern part of the forest covered by Hespheria." Yshmael explained.

He let go of my hand and walked ahead. 

Tired, I decided to follow him immediately. I don't know what's going on but for now, I want to trust Yshmael, maybe he didn't bother to save me if he would put me in danger me in the end.

The small hut is made of hay and straws. It looks like a piles of hay and straws if you look closely. It is also has a shade of night so it is not easy to see it.

Yshmael bent down and lifted part of the hays. "Come on."

I quickly entered when he opened the seemingly secret door there. I was even surprised to see the long stairs. It goes down and it looks like that is the only way. I quickly went downstairs and looked at the spacious one that looked like a room. It was a secret underground hide, and no one would have thought that there was a hidden place under the piles of hay and straw.

"It's good that you've arrived. You've made us nervous." 

That voice caught my attention. 

"Greyson?" I was shocked to meet the man who came out of a smaller room.

"What's up?" Yshmael asked. He went to a small cabinet and took a first aid kit there. He handed it to me. "Use this." He said before going to a sofa and sat there. 

Then I felt the tiredness and pain of the scratches and wounds on my body.

I chose to sit on a small couch there and examined myself. I even frowned when I saw some bruises on my thigh. I also have some scratches on my arms and other parts of the body. Fortunately, we were wearing helmets when we fell, or else my face was already full of wounds now. 

"Here." Greyson placed a pitcher of cold water and a glass on the table next to me.

"Thank you."

Greyson nodded and re-entered the room he came from earlier. 

After cleaning and applying disinfectant to my wounds and scratches my eyes focused on the helmets on the side of the sofa. They are scratched and even cracked.

Unconsciously, my gaze shifted to the man in front of me. His eyes is closed and seemed to have fallen asleep.

Yshmael Marco is not the typical cold and handsome guy. He has this presence of being beautiful despite the fact that he really is. Even though his face looked very tired, it did not diminish the charisma he possessed, it seemed to add even more.

And his presence slightly touched my heart.

"Problem?" He raised an eyebrow. I didn't even notice that he was awake. 

Before I could answer him, Grayson came out of the small room again, with Kalvin wearing thick glasses and carrying a laptop.

"They left." Kalvin put the laptop he was holding on the table so I peeked too. 

This is a video from a cctv. 

"We'll watch the others." Grayson said and returned to the room. Yshmael followed him.

"This is a cctv footage that we installed at the scene of your encounter earlier with those who're chasing you, Lanie." I did not even ask Kalvin but he explained. "We were able to install cctv on every part of Hespheria without the knowledge of the authorities. It was really difficult to check every shot because of the amount we put in."

I already had an idea why they were doing this but I still asked. "Why?" 

Kalvin chuckled, far from his usual personality. "Did you really think that Hespheria is all about peace and order? If you do... Think twice, Maelanie."

My forehead furrowed at what he said. 

Kalvin just smirked. "Hespheria is really a peaceful and the safest town you'll ever hear. But it comes from the outward appearance of the town. Peaceful, orderly and prosperous. But it's not what it seems. Because from its insides, it's dirty, it's all trash. "

❤