SHSL Lucky Student

[Namira]

((continued from Heat Up))

Connie bunkered down in the cellar for as long as she dared, eyes stinging and throat scratching, closing up a millimetre at a time. If her visitor from earlier was staking her out, then Connie was at least going to try her patience. Make it inconvenient, you know?

Eventually the heat and the smoke grew to be too much. If she remained any longer, she would suffocate. Of the forks in her road that led to death, inhaling too much of her own smoke and passing out was by far the more humiliating option. So, time to brave the slasher.

Connie skulked her way out of the basement itself, keeping low to keep from breathing in too many fumes. However, once she reached the stairs she straightened up fully. Either someone was waiting for her to emerge or they weren't. If she went out, it would be on her feet.

She wasn't totally sure if she was afraid. The calm atop her shoulders was nothing natural.

It wound up moot. Nobody was waiting to gun her down. No, the gunfire was outside. Connie shared the inside with the ash and smoke.

Huh. She hadn't been in the neighbourhood of a gunfight before. It was a lot louder than she expected.

A little shiver ran down her spine. Ah. Yeah. Okay. She was scared. She couldn't waltz straight through a guns blazing battle, and whoever won could just come back here and mop up. Just another way to make her a footnote. An extra. Did that even matter anymore? It was so close to—an amplified voice cut through her thoughts like a machete.

it was so close to— to—

Interpol?

SEALs?

Home?

"Ha..."

oh my god what

"Haha..."

that's a joke you cannot be serious

"Hahahah!"

Connie doubled over laughing, hands on her knees. Laughed until tears streamed down her face.

After all that, the mark turned out to be her.

((connie continued in The V8 Rescue))