Chapter 83: Time Alone

His pulse spiked as the reality of the situation slammed into him. A car was just ahead, a mere second away from a collision. The distance between them was closing too fast.

"Skrrtttt!"

Adrenaline surged through Noah’s veins, and without a second thought, he gripped the steering wheel tightly, his hands moving with instinctive precision. His mind, once clouded by the flashback, snapped into sharp focus.

The tyres screeched against the asphalt as Noah jerked the wheel, the car spinning wildly. The sudden shriek of tyres against asphalt pierced the stillness of the night like a scream.

Noah’s hands gripped the steering wheel with iron focus, his knuckles white, and his mind snapped into hyperawareness, pushing aside the haunting memory of the girl.

The car in front was too close, its taillights growing rapidly as the Lykan hurtled toward it. There was no room for hesitation—no room for fear.

The driver in the car ahead noticed the headlights in his rearview mirror growing impossibly large, the engine’s roar growing louder, like a predator closing in on its prey.

His heart leapt into his throat as his eyes widened in disbelief. "What the hell…?" His mind raced, panic seizing his body, but his hands froze on the wheel.

"I should move. Why can’t I move?"

The screech of Noah’s tires filled the air again, deafening and sharp. The Lykan slid dangerously close, cutting through the space between the lanes as if it was defying physics.

Noah’s mind moved faster than his car, every detail registering in an instant—the angle of the road, the speed, the exact timing required to avoid disaster.

His reflexes worked with terrifying precision, the drift seamless, like a perfect manoeuvre crafted in the chaos of the moment.

"He’s going to crash into me!" The driver in front couldn’t tear his eyes away from the rearview mirror, his muscles locked in a grip of fear.

"Move! Do something!" he screamed internally, but his body refused to obey, frozen in a mix of terror and disbelief.

He could see the Lykan approaching, its sleek form twisting into the drift, tyres screeching as it seemed to fly toward him with impossible speed. "It’s going to hit— I’M DEAD!"

But just when the impact seemed inevitable, the Lykan slid past him, the roaring engine and the howl of the tyres blending into a symphony of precision.

Noah’s car spun sideways, the rear bumper missing the other vehicle by mere inches. The screeching reached a crescendo as the Lykan skimmed across the asphalt, like a blade cutting through silk.

Sparks flew where the tyres scraped the road, the sound like nails on a chalkboard, but Noah’s grip on the wheel never faltered.

The driver in the front car blinked, his breath caught in his chest, disbelief washing over him like a cold wave.

"How did he…?" His eyes darted to his side mirror, seeing the Lykan regain its balance behind him, seamlessly returning to its lane as if nothing had happened.

"That was impossible. He should’ve… we should’ve both…" His mind couldn’t fully grasp what he had just witnessed.

Meanwhile, Noah felt the wheel steady beneath his hands, the engine’s vibration calming as the tyres gained traction once more. His heartbeat was still pounding in his ears, but his body was calm—eerily so.

The silence that followed felt deafening.

Noah exhaled slowly, his grip loosening on the steering wheel. His mind was racing, not from near accident, but from the storm of thoughts that followed the flashback. He could still see her face, and hear her voice. The words played over and over in his head like a broken record:

"Promise me you won’t do that again, okay?"

He shook his head as if trying to shake the memory loose, but it clung to him, deep and heavy.

"What am I doing?" he whispered to himself, the question barely audible against the hum of the engine.

The road ahead stretched endlessly, but Noah could see the cracks forming, not on the asphalt, but inside himself.

With a steadying breath, he pushed the accelerator down, the Lykan’s engine roaring back to life as the speed climbed once again.

Behind him, the driver of the other car finally exhaled, his heart still hammering in his chest. "What… what the hell was that?" he muttered to himself, still trying to process the fact that he had just witnessed the most death-defying manoeuvre he had ever seen.

"That guy…" The driver’s hands trembled as he gripped his own wheel, staring at the dark road ahead in disbelief. "He should’ve crashed. There’s no way he could’ve controlled that…"

But Noah had controlled it. With a level of skill that bordered on the supernatural, he had threaded the needle between disaster and survival. And the driver left behind in the wake of the Lykan’s screeching tyres, could only shake his head in stunned silence.

"Who the hell was that?" Sёarch* The nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Meanwhile, Noah was feeling troubled, by his character, his actions, and his very self. He could feel it—he was reverting. Rapidly.

What disturbed him the most was that it felt natural. Almost too natural.

His phone buzzed again on the passenger seat it was Lily, glancing at the text.

"See you tomorrow at school!"

He shook his head and ignored the message, he already decided that he wasn’t going to go home tonight, and he wasn’t going to school either.

He needed space and time to think. Maybe it was exhaustion, or maybe it was something more. Whatever it was, he needed to get away from everything.

"The mansion."

Noah remembered it suddenly—a reward from the system he had yet to check out. He had been so caught up in everything lately that he hadn’t even visited the place.

He quickly made up his mind. He didn’t need to be around people right now.

"I can have some time alone in a secluded area, that should help," he muttered.

The mansion was only about 30 minutes from his parents’ house, and the thought of finally seeing it intrigued him.