Seeds of Sorrow
Within a matter of minuets, we arrived at the track. Fan-girls were screaming Jak's name as he drove though the entrance and towards his garage, I simply sank into the seat, to try and avoid detection, but it didn't work. I felt so out of place.
Jak slammed on the brakes and skidded around the corner into the garage, where we were greeted by Lauren, tinkering away at an engine to a Havoc. Alleisha hadn't noticed out arrival, she was too busy mixing paint over the far side. I tired to step out discretely, but Alleisha soon turned around to spot me. I walked over to them both, wondering what they were both going to say, dragging my shopping bag behind me.
"And where have you been?" Lauren taunted, with a smirk pained across her face.
"Shopping" I said, cheerily, attempting to hide my true emotions. Lauren simply nodded, and went back to tinkering, but Alleisha wasn't finished yet...
"Who with?" she asked, with her signature menacing glint in her eye. I went quiet.
"Don't tell me, I got your message." she said. This confused me, I didn't tell the receptionist who I was going with, and she was shaking when I left with...him...
"You went with that Razor bloke, didn't you?" Alleisha asked, knowing perfectly that I did. I nodded and she just laughed.
"Why? He's a twat." she laughed, carrying on with what she was doing. I felt all angry inside, there was no need for her to call him that. Even if he was...
Jak walked over to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
"So, why are you here?" he asked, looking at me side on.
"Yeah sweet-cheeks, why are you in this dump?" Daxter added in his usual flirting persona.
"I got dragged along" I laughed, moving my hair out of my face. I was still all dressed up. I looked down at my clothes and remembered that I needed to change.
"Do you mind if I go and get changed?" I asked. Jak nodded and took me to the apartment above, where I could get changed privately. A few moments later, I had changed into the black, full length, long sleeved jumpsuit, with the pair on knee length boots, in which Razor had also bought for me. I walked out of the room, only to be greeted by a welcoming hug from a vastly tattooed woman.
"I'm Ashelin" She stated, hand on hip.
"Hi" I said, nervously, backing off slightly. She seemed nice enough, I'm sure we would eventually get along, since I would be working here for the remainder of the trip. Another young woman then approached me, with cobalt blue hair and a very smart looking pea green outfit.
"Rayn, I'm sure you've heard of me" she said, shaking my hand. To be quite honest, I hadn't got a clue who she was, so I just went along with it. I was then acquainted with the team mechanic, Keira. She seemed to irritate me, with her high-pitched voice and her constant flirting with Jak. Not that I was bothered.
I went back downstairs into the garage to join in on something interesting, only to find that they had the car that Alleisha and Lauren had done up, was on the track, ready to go for a test lap. I ran up the ramp and onto the starting grid.
"What's going on?" I asked Jak, slightly out of breath.
"Well, your two friends have spent all morning on their first project." He replied, pointing at the old Javelin-X. One of Jak's team-mates Torn leapt into the driving seat and started up the engine, after a few deafening splutters it roared into life. I backed off , concerned about the overall safety of the vehicle.
"Well, that's shrapnel waiting to happen!" I shouted, running up the steps, into the stands for a better view. The car crawled off the starting grid, I'm telling you, a snail would have been faster. I watched as the car attacked the corner, and vanished out of sight. Clicking my tongue I stood upright, from leaning on the balcony and stretched out my arms. Looks like getting up early was catching up on me. I heard chuckling from my left, and as I looked, I saw a group of Veteran racers, splitting their sides at the sight of the Javelin-X and making witty remarks. This angered me, as I knew full well who it was, and taking the piss out of my friends' hard work wasn't about to go down well.
"Oi." I shouted at them in complete annoyance. "What the FUCK do you THINK YOUare doing?" I screamed, even louder than before. "Your a bunch of Knobs! They have been working on that car for the entire morning, and to YOU that may not sound very long, but for inexperienced people, they have tried their hardest. Its all right for you, sitting on your fat arse's all day while real people get up and do useful things, only once in a blue moon do you get up and do a simple, crappy, race!" By this point I had attracted the attention of everyone below, including Lauren and Alleisha, Jak and the rest of the Grease Monkeys. Shiv, Cutter, Edje and ... Razor … just stood there, struck with shock, unable to move. I was fuming, storming off into the opposite direction. I just kept walking, continuously. Not knowing where I was going to end up. Not caring. My hair was all over the place, my make-up running from the heat rushing out of my face.
I sighed. Pushing the door to The Bloody Hook open. Sod it I thought, as I sat on the nearest bar stool in a huff. I felt slightly dizzy, so I rested my head in my hands on the bar.
"So what will it be?" asked an unknown voice, with a heavy American accent. I lifted my head and just motioned my hand. Seeing that I was in a depressive mood, he bought me a glass and a bottle of a green coloured liquid.
"On the house" he said. Tapping the cap on the bottle. I broke out a small smile, realising it was a bottle of Russian Vodka. I sighed, filling half of the glass before taking a sip. It was hardly noon and there were already a handful of people in there, the very keen regulars I would say. God that's strong... I thought, shaking my head slightly, sending chills down my spine. I wasn't planning to leave any though.
I quickly got bored, just sat there, listening to the retired racers hanging on to every last line of each others sentence's, telling story's of old race's they took part in, and how the technology has changed, enabling the younger generation to cheat death more, making it easier to sort the men from the boys. This made me laugh, but since I was sitting on my own, it didn't feel right to do so. I stood up, nodded at the bartender, and walked out, with the bottle of green liquid in hand.
I walked along the road, no idea how to get back to the track. I only knew where the hotel was, but I couldn't get in without my key, which Lauren currently had. I sat on the side of the pavement, elbows on my knees, looking at the fresh tarmac. I few moments passed and I got up and began to walk in a vague direction, smelling burning rubber. I was restless. Something was in the back of my mind, niggling at me. Something felt like it was missing. Around half an hour later, I had found the entrance to the track. By this point, I felt slightly tipsy, considering I had nearly polished off the whole bottle, I was doing well, any normal person would of passed out by now.
I stumbled into the garage, putting the empty bottle onto the floor.
"What happened to you?" I heard a voice say.
"I got pissed" I said, laughing. I was literally rolling on the floor, unable to stop giggling. Sig, a tall waste-lander came striding over, picked me up, dumped me onto a chair and threw a bucket of water into my face. The slight 'pissed-ness' instantly washed away. I sighed and stood up, all of the water just ran off the jumpsuit, into a big puddle onto the floor. Lauren came walking over, laughing and Alleisha followed.
"What have you been drinking Blyade?" Alleisha asked.
"Some sort of Russian Vodka" I replied, showing her the bottle, with traces of green liquid in the bottom. A fit of hysterics filled the room as Torn walked in, covered in black soot and the odd piece of shrapnel.
"What happened to you?" I asked, holding back tears. A mumble emerged from his mouth. Sig gestured to say it again, an reluctantly, he did.
"I crashed it."
The room was filled once again by masses of laughter, tears rolling down our faces.
"I know what went wrong..." Alleisha informed us, "The eco-turbo was jammed, so when you engaged it, the eco was built up and..."
"Woaaa there" I said. "Speak English!" Alleisha laughed and then said she would explain later, so I started drawing, in the corner of the room, as them attempted to re-paint a Dragonfly.
An hour had passed and they had finished. It looked very... patchy. That was the only way in which to describe it. I stood up and went to make conversation with Rayn, who was doing paperwork, but as I did, a huge roar of an engine dispersed to the air. The whole team looked at each other curiously, but went back to work, all but 3. Me, Alleisha and Lauren walked up the ramp and outside, where we were met by 2 large gangs arguing.
"Mizo your a twat, everything has gone wrong since you took to the stage, were under threat of being found out, because of you!" I couldn't identify which bloke had said that, there were at least, 10 if not 12 in each group. The arguing just seem to carry on endlessly. Shiv and Cutter emerge from the crowd to see Lauren and Alleisha. They waved goodbye as they went off with them, presumably to the pub, leaving me alone.
The arguing seemed to carry on for ages, I was about to go back into the garage, until I saw a pair of green eyes meet mine, and their brows lower. This person emerged from the crowd, and walked towards me.
"What are you doing here?" the voice asked, if he hadn't of spoke, I wouldn't of recognised him.
"I'm surprise your talking to me." I said, reluctant to speak to him.
"And I'm surprised your talking to me as well" he spoke, lowering his guard.
"Why shouldn't I be here?" I asked, "I'm working in the garage just behind us."
"I know, whatever, you just shouldn't be here. Outside. Its dangerous. Mizo is on the rampage." he spoke. I went to reply when somebody shouted out, noticing me.
"Get out of here" He said. "They've spotted you, Mizo and I have your back."
"I'm not leaving" I rebelled. All hell let loose, there were sudden fist-fights and masses of shouting. Threats were being shouted towards me; "Who's that bitch?" someone screamed. I was terrified. Being Kras City, there was always the element of danger, and I should of known better than to come out and investigate. A cold sweat ran down the side of my face, as one of the men pulled out a gun. Without thinking, whoever it was pointed it towards me. From above I heard Lauren and Alleisha screaming my name, telling me to run, but I couldn't , I felt frozen, stuck in time. Everything was blurry, I couldn't breathe properly.
There was a gunshot.
A scream.
My heart stopped.
"Razor!"