==Hello! I've been studying for a massive exam all day so I decided to take a break and post another chapter. It's been written for about a week, but unfortunately I've barely started on the next. We got out of school for three days because of a flu breakout in many of the schools in our area, and as a result, we had musical practice on all three of those days. Plus this exam has got me so stressed out that I'm doing everything I can to be ready on Tuesday. In addition to all this madness, I'm leaving for a week to go scuba diving, and I'm going to be doing a lot of homework in my spare time. What's even better is that the day I come back to school, we have our first performance. So I'm afraid my hands will be tied for the next couple of weeks, if not longer. I'm sorry, guys...I promise to get things back on track whenever I have the time and to try to write a little bit while I'm in Florida. I have been given some good ideas to make Ch.45 entertaining!==
Yellow Claw - "Roller"
I can be a roller, roller, driving downtown, say eh, eh.
Haunted: Collapse into Caliginosity
Chapter 44:
Finding A Way
I lost sleep because of this day. Hours of darkness were spent staring at the bunk above mine, my mind wandering as I listened to my brothers sleep in the room around me. Macca was the only thing I could think about. Hopes led to memories and memories led to feelings that made my body temperature rise. The one night we shared a bed was the closest we'd been with each other. Feeling her in the peaceful trance of sleep gave me the opportunity to experience how it was like to savor moments of comfort without the thought of something disrupting anything, and I've yearned for that opportunity again.
So I lay in bed, eyes aching to close, with a mind imagining things that revolved around the beautiful woman of many wonders. It may have been a waste of energy needing to be restored, but I was not lost just because my mind wandered. Instead, I felt it taking me to a new and real place in which I have yet to know about. I wanted to know the place known as love, and I wanted her to be there with me.
But as my consciousness wavered and concentrated at the same time, the sun rose from the horizon to greet us for a new day. It was the day I got to see Macca again, and anxiousness began to settle in along with excitement.
Jay whistled at me when I stepped onto the upper deck for training. The sound of it seemed mockingly seductive, like a male attempting to get a female's attention. Kai and Cole laughed.
"Trying to look sharp for the lady?" the Blue Ninja asked, trying to get a reaction out of me.
Confused, I gazed down at my suit to see the fabric and intersecting rope positioned the same as it was every day. "Macca enjoys me for who I already am. Trying to impress her is unnecessary," I deemed.
"There's nothing wrong with a little sprucing up," Kai encouraged. "What're you meeting her for again? Pictures?"
"According to her as of last night, she is simply modeling for a clothing line. I'm only going because she requested to borrow my Golden Weapons for certain stances. For her own safety, I wanted to be present to ensure she handled them properly."
"Does Sensei know about this?" Cole questioned.
"Of course he does. He trusts me to protect Macca from any danger regarding the Golden Weapons. Nothing bad is going to occur."
Sensei Wu steadily took his place in front of us. "Pupils, let us begin training for the day."
The four of us took our positions to stretch. I forced myself to stop thinking about Macca. I would see her soon enough.
Enter the city, turn left onto Clinghan Drive, go through four traffic lights, and turn right onto Keith Street…What came after that?
I stared at myself in the mirror of our room, pausing in the middle of changing my clothes to think about the order of directions. My memories remembered writing the directions down, but they couldn't decide what followed after Keith Street.
After a moment, I pulled the white garment over my shoulders and picked up the paper to check.
Turn right onto Keith Street, turn left onto Round Rock Road. Yes, that was it.
I put the paper back down.
Go through two traffic lights, turn right onto Frontage Boulevard, and go through three traffic lights–
The small speaker in the room became audible. "Zane, we're approaching Ninjago City," Nya informed me. "You can leave whenever you want."
I walked into view of the speaker. "Thank you, Nya. I'll be off the Bounty in two-point-seven minutes."
The rest of my suit was tucked, folded, and tied in its usual places at a faster pace than before. Once it was all in order, I picked up the paper and my shurikens and headed out to the upper deck.
Ninjago City was two-point-two miles away from where the Bounty was currently located. The alien buildings were decreased in size from the excess distance, but I experienced their true behemoth magnitude first-hand on only two occasions. It was a forest of glass and steel with a concrete undergrowth. The organisms within the environment made noise and swarmed every inch available to them. But somewhere in there was Macca. It was her home, and I was an outsider. She knew it better than I did. My lack of knowledge about Ninjago City was my only weakness. Obstacles could easily be encountered, and I was clueless as to what to do about them.
My lungs inflated with a fresh breath of oxygen as I contemplated the challenge, pulling my mask over my face. Out of thin air, the golden shurikens appeared in my grasp. I leapt off the Bounty, concentrating on the power I possessed. Then with a flash of white light, my Frost Bike supported my bodyweight. I gripped the handlebars, revved the engine, and landed on the dusty road leading straight into the city. The vehicle drove forward while releasing ice crystals into the atmosphere behind me. Before my very eyes, the buildings grew bigger and bigger until I was riding beneath them.
Glaring sunlight beamed against pristine windows of buildings. It reflected into my eyes, and for a moment it was difficult to notice people stopping in their tracks on the sidewalks when I passed them. A few vehicles joined the road alongside me. Within their tinted windows, I saw people pressing their faces against them to get a better look at me. There were a few times I took a glance, but I remembered how I had to stay concentrated.
When the first traffic light approached, I gazed around in search of Clinghan Drive, but there was no such thing. The surrounding cars stopped at the red light, so I did the same. I opened up the paper again to check if I missed something. The first street I wrote down was Clinghan Drive, so there was no possibility that I could've missed it.
The light turned green, and we moved forward again. Deep down I knew I missed something. I wasn't supposed to pass through a traffic light yet. Something was wrong.
I pulled over in front of a line of parked vehicles. People walking stopped momentarily out of curiosity.
"Ninja?" someone gasped. "They're actually real?"
A well-dressed man with brushed brown hair came into my view. He was the one who made the comment. "Could you help me?" I inquired.
He shrugged, readjusting the satchel dangling from his shoulder.
"I'm looking for Clinghan Drive. Do you where it is located?"
"Clinghan Drive? You're on the wrong end of town for that, buddy."
"This isn't the southern entrance?"
"Nope. This is the northern entrance."
Mentally, I expressed annoyance. Nya wasn't one who made many mistakes.
"Just keep following this road. You'll reach the southern entrance and find Clinghan Drive down there. It's not much of a lengthy trip."
"I don't have much time, but thank you."
I skimmed through the entire set of directions once more. There could be a way for me to still find the location without having to start from the very beginning. It was possible for me to reverse the directions and still make it on time.
Turn right onto the next available road, and then go through four traffic lights.
When I got the opportunity, I merged into traffic and prepared to turn onto an unfamiliar street. It wasn't as crowded as the other main road, but it also only had a single lane on each side. The traffic lights I passed through were all green except for the final one.
After this one, turn left and then right.
I continued to do this for the remainder of directions I had. People still watched me, but I ignored their stares. I had a destination to reach in little time. Macca would think I wasn't coming if I didn't arrive soon enough.
One traffic light. Then I should somewhat be near the location.
I proceeded through a green light and pulled over again. Looking around, none of the buildings seemed special. In fact, there wasn't anything here at all. No people, no businesses or shops. It was eerily quiet. Only a single vehicle passed me, going the opposite direction of where I came from. It appeared that I would have to either ask for directions again or search more by myself.
One thing I knew what to search for was Macca's car. Even though I've only seen it once in the past, there was no mistaking it for belonging to anyone else besides her. I had nothing else to go by other than she would be in a warehouse with many other people.
At a casual speed, I drove through roads, still finding nothing significant. I came across a homeless man with a cart full of his belongings, but I didn't stop to ask for his help. Surely there was somebody reliable to speak with.
Soon I came across a road that ended in a dead end. The back of a building prevented the road to continue in one direction. I was reluctant to make my Frost Bike diminish back into the shurikens, but I made the effort to climb the brick wall to the very top in order to take a look at the surrounding area.
Down below, the street had businesses lining the sidewalk on both sides and people strolling in different directions. Partial relief settled into my nerves. I dropped down onto the sidewalk below, not making a sound when the soles of my feet collided with the cracked concrete. A woman's frightened yelp made me look up from the crouch that absorbed the impact. She had a cellular phone to her ear and paper shopping bags hanging from her bent elbow. Her face showed slight fear from my sudden presence.
"My apologies," I politely said, standing up straight.
She hurried by, wanting nothing to do with me.
I gazed around, seeing how none of the businesses were warehouses. In addition to my observation, no vehicles were a spectacular purple like Macca's.
"Hmm…" I pondered. Almost involuntarily, my legs took me to the end of the sidewalk, where a street sign was. The white letters against green read Echo Lane and Talon Circle. Neither were in the list of directions I wrote down.
Across the road was a plot of land that was circular shaped with a shiny statue standing in the center of a perpendicular sidewalk. I used the opportunity to cross on the white markings when a light permitted it. From the statue's standpoint, I was able to view many more street signs. The consistent one was Talon Circle, but the different ones included Powell Road, Watt Road, Diamond Boulevard, and Brainerd Street–
Brainerd Street!
I looked at the directions and found Brainerd Street.
Go through two traffic lights, turn right onto Lauderdale Lane.
My shurikens transformed back into the Frost Bike and traveled down Brainerd Street until I found Lauderdale Lane. My next move was to turn left onto Kington Drive, but I was also going back into a vacant part of the city.
Doing so, I immediately noticed Macca's car parked in front of a warehouse. The hot sunlight made the purple dazzle, and I was able to take the unique structure of it into account. My heart contracted prematurely, making me lose concentration. I suddenly hit the ground within a flash of white light. Brief pain crawled under my skin, but adrenaline picked me back up. I made it to the right place.
The front part of the warehouse was open to the outside world with a mass of people working inside. There was also a periodic flash of light against a plain backdrop.
I entered, not being stopped by anybody. On one side of the room, there was an area with screens full of different images of Macca being assessed by a group of individuals who wore all black clothing. The back of their shirts had a teal logo on them. The other side of the room had a rack of white outfits that had yet to be worn, along with a closed off area and a station with many lights radiating down on an elevated chair with a mirror being able to show three distinct angles.
Hope led me to the flashing light, where Macca posed for cameras in a tight seamless outfit that was only comprised of white. The fabric accentuated her many curves and showed how physically fit she was. Her hair was loosely pulled back to appear messy yet appealing to the eye. The skin on her face seemed so smooth from a distance that it almost looked plastic, but the slight black streak traveling across her top eyelids made her look the most stunning.
A woman with curly blonde hair gave Macca ideas about how to pose, but the moment Macca laid eyes on me, her face enlightened and another camera shot a picture.
I'm hoping for this little segment of growing a relationship isn't too boring for y'all. Things will get exciting again by Ch.46! Shoutout to Kai4Ever for reviewing!
Kai4Ever - Sorry! I'll ask my medical teacher about correct treatment and change it soon :)