Imaginary - Book 2 - Chapter 21 - A Leisurely Drive (Patreon)

“Is all this really necessary?” Kyle asked, stopping in the door to the van. 

“Ask questions AFTER we’re settled,” Amelia yelled as she nearly ran into his back. Instead of stopping, she slowed down just enough to get one hand on the collar of his shirt, and the other on the frame of the van, allowing her to half push, half carry him into the vehicle. 

“Hey! Was that really necessary?” he asked as she shoved him into the back seat.

“I don’t know, but what I DO know is that when two trained special agents ask you to run into a vehicle for your own protection, you don’t stop in the door to ask questions,” Amelia growled. “What if Kira, Olivia, or Tamera got hurt because you blocked the door?”

“Shouldn’t you include yourself in that list?” I asked as I sank down onto the middle bench seat next to her.

“Probably,” she begrudgingly agreed. “However, when Kyle stopped, the first thing that came to my mind was your guys' safety, not mine.” 

Olivia smirked. “Is that because of the training you’ve been taking in our survival classes, or because you’re a natural born protector?” she asked.

“Honestly? Probably a little bit out of column A and a little out of column B,” Amelia replied. “Besides, I’m a lot more resilient than the rest of you guys, due to my powers.”

“More resilient, but not invincible,” Kira scowled.

“I know, I know. It’s not like I was actually planning to stop and fight if something happened; I’m just saying I thought of you guys first,” Amelia grumbled.

“We know, and we appreciate it,” I said, reaching over and giving her a side hug.

“Everyone settled in? Seatbelts on?” Pam called as she slipped into the passenger seat. 

“Of course,” Kira replied. “My brother may have chosen the worst time to ask, but I think his question was valid. Is all this really necessary?”

“Well, the truth is, we have no idea,” Pam replied. “Grey used to be a little unconventional, but he stuck to the rules, just like everyone else. No one knows what made him go rogue, or why he’s targeting you kids in particular.”

“Are you sure that he’s targeting us? Maybe he’s just scouting out people,” Kira suggested.

“That’s possible, but you’re the only ones we’ve seen that he’s gone out of his way to contact so far, so until we know more, we’re going to assume he’s targeting you in particular,” Pam explained. “We’d rather be overly cautious than not cautious enough.”

“Fair enough,” Olivia said. “I, for one, appreciate having you guys around. Even though I only saw the guy for a minute, something about him scared me. I’d hate to run into him alone.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. As long as Grey is on the loose, there’ll be an agent watching over you kids, twenty-four-seven,” Mac replied as he reached up and adjusted the mirror. As soon as he was finished he put the van in drive and pulled out onto the nearly deserted roadway behind the field office. “Alright, everyone, hold on. The admin building isn’t that far, and we can take the back roads most of the way, so it should be smooth sailing.”

“Don’t say something like that,” Pam muttered. “You’re tempting fate.”

“I can’t believe you still believe that, after everything we’ve seen and everything we’ve been through, you still believe in that stuff,” Mac said, never taking his eyes off the road.

“I didn’t say I believe in it. I just think it’s better to err on the side of caution,” Pam grumbled. “Who knows, maybe there’s an Empowered out there who can force you to face karma for your statements. I’ve seen weirder things during my time at the bureau.”

“So have I. That doesn’t mean I’m going to go to spend the rest of my life watching what I’m…” Mac didn’t even get to finish his sentence before he interrupted himself and slammed on the brakes. 

“What? What’s going on?” Olivia asked in a slight panic.

“Grey somehow got in front of us, and is standing in the road,” Pam replied calmly.

“What? How? We’ve been sitting in the middle of the field office ever since he tried to confront us earlier. There’s no way he should have been able to predict not only when we’d leave, but our destination too,” Olivia said. 

“Grey’s no idiot. He probably realized that if we wanted to evacuate you kids we’d take you to the camput, so he’s been waiting for us,” Mac said.

“Yeah, but how did he know we were here? I mean, a giant black van screams law enforcement, but there’s no way he should have known we were in this vehicle in particular,” Kyle said.

“I don’t know,” Pam replied quietly, “let me ask him.”

“Uhhhh, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” Kira muttered.

“Yeah, but it’s better than sitting here like a sitting duck,” Pam growled. 

“Calm down, I want to know how he found us just as much as you do, but our priority needs to be protecting the kids,” Mac snapped.

“And what, exactly, do you plan to do?” Pam asked.

“Simple. Since Grey was nice enough to expose himself, instead of trying to take us by surprise, we simply backtrack. What’s he going to do? Outrun the car?” Mac replied.

“Well… he doesn’t need to outrun us if he’s already behind us,” Kyle muttered.

“What?” I exclaimed, struggling to turn around so I could look at him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean he’s literally standing behind us right now,” Kyle replied. 

While I was still struggling to turn, Pam twisted around and stared out the back window. “Wonderful. He’s playing with us. Comes at us from one direction while creating an exact duplicate to approach from the other. He’s trying to pin us in,” she snarled. 

“What do you want to do?” Mac asked. “We need to decide fast, before he closes in on us.”

“I think all we can do is choose one, try to run them down, and hope that we choose the illusion,” Pam said. 

“Why the illusion?” Amelia asked. “Wouldn’t running him over, and injuring him, solve a lot of our problems?” 

“It would, however, Grey is a veteran who has fought hundreds of extra planar entities, and closed dozens of rifts. He’ll almost certainly stop the car before we can crash into him,” Pam said. 

“I’m not sure crashing into either of them is the right idea,” Olivia muttered. 

“You’re probably right, but our only other options are surrendering to him, or making a run for it, and I have no intention of just handing you all over to someone who’s suffering a break from reality,” Pam muttered, before looking over at her partner. “Forward or back?” 

“Forward,” Mac replied, throwing the vehicle into drive. “We don’t have to run the bastard over, just make it past him, and that’s much easier going forward.” 

“Hold on kids, this is going to be rough!” Pam called as the van accelerated far quicker than I would have expected. 

I flailed about for a second, trying to find something to grab onto before finally sinking my hands into the back of the seat in front of me.

I could just barely see Grey through the gap between the driver and passenger seats. He was casually walking our way, and even though he was quite a ways away, I swear I could see him smiling at us.

Just as we were about to smash into Grey Mac swerved, attempting to go around.

In response Grey just seemed to flick his wrist, and as soon as he did I had a feeling of weightlessness, as the car seemed to leap off the ground and roll sideways. As my stomach jumped up into my throat I heard Kyle mutter behind me. “I think we might have made the wrong choice.