Day 41:

So Cor thought he didn't need help to find Rei, huh? Probably still thought Iris was just a kid. Sheesh. After they'd landed a Magitek engine together and everything, too. Crashed. Okay, crashed a Magitek engine together. But only because Rei had caught it on fire first.

The point was he was a great big lump and he obviously needed help. Otherwise he wouldn't have come asking if Reina was here in the first place. Well Iris would just have to go along.

She made a show of closing the front door and slipped out the side window, which still didn't have a screen in it after Daemonfire Night. Nifty. Never thought it would come in handy. There was enough topiary on the side of the house that she could make it almost all the way to the street while Cor was still getting into his car. Actually. Wasn't that Rei's car? The purple suited him real well.

No chance to get closer before he pulled away from the curb. But this was a skip and a hop away from downtown Insomnia and he was heading right into the gridlock that was Caelum street. No one got through there without sitting at stop lights for twenty minutes.

She grabbed Gladdy's skateboard from where he always hid it under the bush in the front. He hadn't used it in months anyway. Okay at least weeks. He was busy doing important Shield stuff. She laid it on the ground and hopped on, keeping crouched low as gravity did the work for her. So long as she didn't lose Cor before he hit the signal at the bottom, she would be fine. And also so long as he didn't look in any of his mirrors and see her following him. Okay, that was a big if, but it would probably be fine anyway. Right?

Right.

She dodged past a few people as the sidewalk started getting busier. They looked at her weird, but not more than once. Just one more young hooligan skateboarding on the sidewalk. Darn them whippersnappers!

The bottom of the hill was coming up. Cor was still ahead and turning left, like she'd guessed. If she timed it right she could pull through the intersection and catch up with him at the next light.

She stuck her foot out and dragged to slow down. Cor turned left. She hit the bottom of the hill, watching the light.

Turn red. Please turn red.

Too late.

She sped over the crosswalk, dodging past the rear of a car that turned left in front of her. This was illegal on so many levels. Dad was going to kill her.

Actually, if he found out she'd done this, probably crossing an intersection without the walk signal would be the least of her worries.

A line of cars stretched out ahead, stuck at the light that was always red. Cor was last in his lane, though probably not for long when the signal behind her went. Had to move quick. Probably better not to have anyone calling the guard because they'd seen a girl climbing into someone's trunk at a stop light.

Yeah… Totally not suspicious or anything.

She jumped the curb, crouched as low on the board as she could be, and slid up behind Cor's car. Rei's car. One of those. In some miraculous turn of luck, it actually had a catch on the outside and didn't need to be released from the driver's seat or with a key. She popped it open, scooped up Gladio's skateboard, and rolled inside. She pulled it shut as quietly as she could just as the light behind turned green. Maybe someone had seen her. Hopefully they didn't care enough to call anyone.

Also, hopefully there was a latch on the inside of the trunk, because she had just closed herself in.