Chapter 429: The Harsh Reality
Jill jogged along as Laz drove the van. He could have just run and asked her to follow him, but he knew that she wouldn’t do so without motivation. As such, the items she left in the back would serve to be that motivation.
"Pick up the pace," Laz would yell out sometimes.
"Do you even remember where we were staying?" Laz would then usually ask.
"If you get lost, you’ll be on your own without your stuff. Is that what you want?" Laz would then say.
It was cruel in a way. He used these minor things to open up a tiny gap in her heart to begin the healing process but then became a bastard by keeping her away from them. Of course he knew it was cruel, but at the same time, what she needed wasn’t just healing... it was tempering. Right now, the Jill who was panting with a loss of breathe as she tried her best to follow the van was already steel, yet it was a warped and brittle steel. Too much fire would cause the steel to explode but too little wouldn’t have an affect. If she was to regain her sense of self and grow stronger in the process, there were certain steps she needed to survive first.
And all of this was based on whether she actually had the drive to succeed.
Perhaps knowing what had happened to her would help him, but having to relive those experiences right now when the wound was so fresh could do more harm than good. First and foremost, Laz needed her trust. And to get that, he first needed to say, do and show her exactly what kind of person he was.
"And here we are. Three miles today, not bad. Of course, you might have actually gone faster just walking the whole way, but at least you tried to run," Laz said, popping open the door to the van.
At first, Jill didn’t move, instead waiting for something else to happen. But Laz didn’t say anything else and just stayed there, parked on the side of the road while waiting. It had to be her choice to keep going after all.
While Jill was standing there debating, she noticed a police car pulling up behind her. Seeing this, Jill quickly scooted into the van and slammed the door shut before locking it, looking very afraid.
Seeing this reaction, Laz’s understanding of the situation went up a little. While some police officers were straight up ego-tripping bastards, most of them weren’t and were just trying to do their jobs in a rather thankless world. And considering how Laz had been driving along on the side of the road with Jill following him for three miles, Laz wasn’t surprised a police officer showed up since there were probably a ton of phoned in complaints about him. The road and town they were in was small, but there was still a fair flow of traffic.
"Can I see some Id?" The heavyset man asked as he walked up to the driver’s side window which Laz had rolled down for him.
"Sure thing!" Laz responded, taking out his id and showing the officer.
"So what exactly is going on out here Mr. Reed?" The officer asked, adjusting his hat while looking at Jill sitting in the passenger seat while breathing heavily. Of course the ID Laz gave him was fake. Laz had fake ID’s for every state in the country and even several from different countries. After a few years on the run, a person learns to plan ahead for these little things.
"Well. My little sister here asked me for some help since I’m back home from college," Laz responded, not missing a beat.
"Help? This is helping?" The officer said, trying to get Jill’s attention.
She didn’t respond though.
"Of course. To be honest, my sister is bad with crowds. Like... freeze on the spot bad. And to make things worse, she decided to join the cross country running team at her high school. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue but since they had a meet coming up with actual people as audience members, she asked me to help her get over her fear of people watching her. And seeing as how I am such a helpful big brother, how could I not help out my wonderful sister?" Laz responded with a rather goofy and yet sarcastic smile on his face.
Seeing this and hearing what Laz had said, the police officer believed him right away. This was the type of thing that family would do to each other, especially brothers and sisters as far as the heavy set officer was concerned.
Still though, to do his job properly, the officer looked over at Jill who still had her head down while trying to calm her breath and asked,
"Is what he said true miss?"
Jill didn’t respond right away, but finally looked up and simply said
"Asshole."
Knowing that she was probably going to lose her cool here, Laz had turned his head and moved it slightly so that it seemed like Jill made this comment to Laz instead of the officer.
Laz laughed and turned back to stare at the officer.
"Got to love family, am I right?" Laz said, giving the officer a thumbs up. In response, the officer just laughed and nodded his head before saying,
"Just don’t do this kind of stuff on the highway, ok son? Too many people see this kind of crazy stuff and that makes me have to work harder," the officer said with a smile before turning around and going back to his patrol car. As Laz rolled up the window, his gaze went from friendly country young man to dead serious and frowning.
"First lesson. No matter what you might think or feel, in the presence of an enemy, you hold back. Show them only what you want them to see. Make them think what you want them to think. You gave yourself away right there and that could mean the difference between you walking away or you dying." Laz’s voice was ice, chilling Jill to the bone.
"That man was a bad man. I could sense it... the things coming off from him..." Jill responded back, actually thinking that Laz had missed that.
"You think you know something I don’t?" Laz asked, turning to look at her.
"But you...." Jill started to argue and stopped, thinking back to Laz’s words.
"Good. You do understand."
"The way he looked at me..." Jill said, shaking.
"I know."
"I don’t think... I will ever..."
"So tell me... what do you want to do about it?" Laz said, pulling into the parking lot of the motel. The difference was, instead of pulling in and parking in front of their room, Laz pulled into the back. While it was a bit cramped, there was about two car lengths of room of asphalt before it turned into a heavily wooded area. Mostly it was just for ease of travel for deliveries and waste removal as there weren’t any doors on this side. Still, if one was so inclined, each room had a window that faced out this way from the bathroom so you could climb inside if you wanted.
Still, this wasn’t the reason Laz had parked back here.
From both ways, behind and in front of them, a cop car appeared, trapping them.
Seeing this, Jill’s face became a mingling of hatred and fear, boiling together. Seeing this, Laz then turned to look in front of the van to find the heavy set cop had returned, obviously having followed them while behind them, a thin and rather lanky looking cop had pulled up the rear.
"Right now, you have two very hard choices. Surrender... or fight. You are far too tired to run away thanks to that jog but even if you could, they would just find an excuse to bring in more people. I know that’s not what you want." Laz’s eyes flashed golden for a second before returning to their ice blue color.
"Both of these... things... deserve death. The question is, can you do it?" Laz then took a pointed stake out from the pouch at his hip. While it looked harmless enough, minus the wooden point on the end of it, Jill got a strange feeling from it... almost like it radiated darkness and death mixed together.
The stake was a part of one of the tree branches Laz had kept after him and Tyr wandered into that strange dimension. Back then he had no idea what the use of it was other than being as hard as steel. But since he had gotten stronger and did some tests, he realized just how special this wood was.
Laz handed her the stake.
"Hide it. Use it when the time is right. As for everything after that, you will have to trust me." Laz smiled and just as the two men approached the van, Laz disappeared from sight, like a ghost vanishing in the wind.
"What the hell?" The heavy set police officer said before pulling his gun and rushing over.
Instead of a young man and a girl, all he saw in the van was the girl. Wiping his bloated hand with his sausage like fingers against his forehead, the heavy set cop couldn’t help but wonder if the heat had been getting to him.
’Either way, it will be much easier without him here... Heh heh heh..." He laughed while opening up Jill’s door.
