Chapter 20: Game Over

  In the dark, abandoned construction site, surrounded by broken bricks, toppled steel drums leaking oil and decaying building machinery, the two friends’ argument continued to escalate.

  “So how long have you been sneaking out here exactly?” Eve demanded.

  Eve continued to evade looking her friend in the eye. “About... two weeks.” She admitted quietly.

  “TWO WEEKS!” Lily exploded again. She staggered back clutching her head in realisation. The pieces began falling into place in her mind as the scale of Eve’s betrayal unfolded before her. “That day you collapsed into bed, I thought you were ill, but you weren’t, were you?”

  Eve shook her head silently in confirmation before explaining. “That was the first time. I adjusted my sleep schedule after to compensate so I could train...”

  “Train?” Lily cut Eve off with a hollow laugh of disbelief. “You call this insanity training? Playing chicken with a truck isn’t training Eve, it’s just being reckless. Especially after you promised me you wouldn’t train in traffic again.”

  Eve held up her hands, “In my defence,” she started, “I’m pretty sure a single truck in a construction site doesn’t technically count as traffic.” Eve pulled out her phone, searching the word traffic. “You see? The dictionary defines traffic as...”

  “Oh don’t you dare try and play technicalities with me!” Lily interjected. “The problem is you are endangering yourself and calling it ‘training’.

  “You don’t understand, I’m not just ‘calling this training’, this is training.” Eve insisted. “Do you have any idea what it takes to be the best at something? You have to be willing to push the limits further than anyone else. It may seem ‘insane’ to you, but to me...” Eve’s voice began to break. “This is what I need to do to stay on top...”

  Lily’s expression softened, she’d never seen Eve open up like this before. “But if you keep this up, it’ll kill you.”

  Eve shook her head as her tears continued to flow freely. “I can’t allow myself to believe that. Because if I do, if I allow the self doubt to creep in, everything falls apart.”

  Drawing closer, Lily gently brushed away Eve’s tears. “What do you mean?” She asked quietly.

  “One mistake, if I take one hit, then I’m no longer the dodgeball prodigy. I’m just Eve.”

  “That’s all you need to be” Lily reassured her.

  “It’s not enough, I’m not enough.” Eve shouted, loud enough her words to echo across the whole desolate and abandoned construction site. “I even only got accepted into college on a sports scholarship, because of my perfect dodgeball record.”

  Lily stepped forward to reassure her friend. “You’re enough for me, I love you, record or no record. You mean everything to me, more than you know.”

  Eve pulled Lily into a hug. For one intense moment. Lily’s heart pounded, as she thought her feelings may have finally got through to Eve.

  “I love you too Bestie”. That nickname ‘Bestie’ confirmed to Lily, that Eve was still oblivious to Lily’s feelings, seeing her confession as little more than a platonic expression of their close friendship. In that moment, it ultimately didn’t matter, what was important to Lily, was Eve’s safety

  Which is why Lily’s heart broke as Eve let go of her and began slowly backing away towards the truck.

  “I love you too Bestie. But you’ve gotta let me do what I need to do.” Eve said solemnly. “This extreme level of training is the only way I can ensure that I stay ahead of the competition.”

  “That’s not fair.” Lily cried. “You can’t expect me to stand by while you keep risking your life like this. There has to be another way you can train. What about my dodgeball machine? Is that not good enough now too?” Lily slowly tried to approach Eve again.

  “No...” Eve confirmed, somewhat reluctantly. “I’m sorry but even at maximum settings, it just can’t keep up with me.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Then I’ll increase the settings.” Lily offered frantically. She began firing off suggestions at machine gun pace. In that moment, she would of offered Eve anything to give up this dangerous game.

  “Whatever you need the machine to do, Ill make it happen! You want it bigger, faster, more power, more throw patterns. You wanted it to hurl bowling balls so hard they get lodged in a wall? You got it! Just please... stop this truck training before it kills you.” Lily pleaded.

  “I don’t know much about technical stuff like you do, but even I know no machine is ever truly random.” Eve explained, her head hanging limply as she confessed. “I’ve learnt every pattern that machine throws, and even if you add new ones, I’d learn those in a matter of days. It doesn’t matter how fast or strong it is.”

  Eve’s sorrow then evaporated as she gestured enthusiastically towards the truck. “But this? It’s truly random, I can’t predict what it’s gonna do next. It’s just like a real opponent.” Her eyes were glistening with excitement, her face beaming

  with joy.

  Lily's heart skipped a beat, her head swirling with confliction. Eve's smile was radiant, her passion and drive were part of why Lily loved her so much. Yet Lily could see those same, wonderful qualities she admired so much, were driving Eve down a path that was ultimately self destructive.

  Why did it have to be this reckless pursuit that made Eve so happy?

  “I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE,” Lily roared, her words reverberating though the night air, before she collapsed to the ground, emotionally exhausted by the weight of the conversation. “I... I can’t do this anymore...” Lily repeated quietly, on her hands and knees, sobbing her heart out. “I can’t stand by while you keep throwing yourself towards something this dangerous, I just can’t.”

  “Bestie...” Eve moved towards her friend and helped her to her feet.

  “I’m going home.” Lily’s voice quavered. She held out a hand to Eve, “Are you coming with me?”

  Eve looked Lily, as Eve reached out for her hand once more, a spark of hope flickered in Lily’s eyes, only to be swiftly snuffed out as Eve hesitated.

  “Eve please...”

  “I’m sorry Bestie...” Eve turned back towards the truck, clenching her fists her own eyes filled with a steely resolve as she made her choice. “I’ve still got training to do. This won’t kill me, it’ll just make me stronger.”

  “Why are you being so STUBBORN?!” Lily stomped her foot firmly, channelling all her frustration into that stomp. She was both literally and figuratively putting her foot down.

  Eve's persistent recklessness had finally ground Lily down and pushed her to beyond the absolute breaking point. As Eve drifted away from her, Lily was completely lost for words. It seemed like there was nothing that Lily could say at this point would change Eve’s mind anyway

  She’d tried everything but it was clear now, Eve was completely beyond reason.

  Maybe in the morning she might be able to talk some sense into Eve, but for now? Lily was forced into a silent, stinging retreat and praying that Eve didn’t get herself killed before she came back home.

  Throughout the argument, Abeona and Wheeler had been silently watching all this unfolding drama, waiting for Lily to move away. Eve was the target, and both Wheeler and Abeona had agreed to avoid causing any unnecessary casualties.

  As Lily started to slowly walk away, Abeona piped up on Wheeler’s radio “OK! Her friend is leaving, quick while Eve’s distracted, go get her.” The Abeona charm began pointing aggressively at Eve through Wheeler’s windscreen, making ‘go get her’ gestures.

  “Shouldn’t we until her friend is completely gone?” Wheeler asked, wishing to err on the side of caution.

  “It’ll be fine.” Abeona insisted dismissively. “If we wait any longer, Eve will get her head back in the game and we’ll miss this opportunity.”

  Wheeler was still hesitant. “It doesn’t seem entirely fair.”

  “All’s fair in love and war, NOW GO GO GO!” Abeona repeated this chant relentlessly, trying to propel Wheeler into action.

  Nervously, Wheeler revved his engine, threw off his handbrake and launched towards Eve at top speed. Wheeler turned off his haptic feedback so he wouldn’t be able to feel the unpleasant physical sensations that would occur if he managed to hit his target.

  Eve was in his sights, completely distracted as she watched Lily’s slowly walking away. This was the moment, he was finally going to... start drifting?

  Eve didn’t move a muscle, but she rapidly disappeared from Wheeler’s line of sight as he began uncontrollably veering off course.

  Had he left his haptic feedback on, Wheeler may have felt the slickness of the oil that had leaked from his earlier collision with the barrels, and now covered the construction site floor.

  With that physical feedback, he may of been able to adjust for it. Instead he found himself careering away from his target and towards another unintended one... Lily!

  Even the normally irreverent Abeona started to panic as she saw was happening through her charm pendant’s eyes. “ABORT, ABORT, ABORT” She yelled, unintentionally mirroring her previous chant. “She’s not the target Wheeler, hit the brakes.”

  Wheeler applied every breaking system available to him but it was no good. He’d charged at Eve with full speed and now, even with both the handbrake and footbrake activated, the built up momentum continued to carry him towards Lily.

  Moments before this Lily hearing the truck engine revving, glanced back at Eve, unable to suppress her concern for her friend. She hadn’t expected the menacing truck to be barrelling its way towards her instead.

  She froze as Its headlights scorched her eyes, blazing with eerie flickering light. Lily had become a deer in the headlights, her mind blank with fear as it bore down on her, seconds away from ending her life.

  The second to last thing Lily heard was Eve screaming out her name. The last thing was a sickening crunch as steel met flesh.

  *CRUNCH*