#crossing while looking both ways while drivers are driving like they’re in fast n furious 🔥

[seumyo]

I’ll be back on October, trust 🫂

[always5hineee]

Hell and Back- Chapter 14: Fast and Furious (Trial 20)

Word count: 1817

Chapter warnings: Mild language and Dangerous actions

[Please do not replicate any of the behaviors read in this book.]

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       "Alright, so Lay's agreed to go next." Suho was talking to the group while Y/N and Chanyeol were in the bathroom. "We'll have Y/N do that next."

       "Speaking of Y/N, we've all had one, or both turns. She hasn't done any yet." Kyungsoo said with a worried look on his face.

       "Yeah, good point, she's skipping out." Kris accused. Shaking his head, the first man amended,

       "I didn't mean it like that. Moreso that I'm a little nervous- the challenges keep getting worse, I don't want her stuck doing the worst challenges."

       "She'll be fine," Baekhyun said, "Even if she doesn't have a power, the rest of us do."

       "You all act like having a power makes you better than me." She said from behind them, causing all of them to spin around in surprise. She and Chanyeol had returned, evidently more quietly than they had expected, as they hadn't even noticed the two walk up.

       "Chanyeol, your hair-" Sehun started to say, but Tao was more concerned with Y/N's comment.

       "Y/N, no one thinks that. We're just concerned for your safety-"

       "Yeah, because you think I'm less safe than you, because I don't have a power. It's not just about abilities, sometimes you have to rely on being smart. Or talented. Don't act like you're special just because you can burn things or pick up rocks with your mind."

       "Hypothetically that would make us better." Kris muttered under his breath, earning him an elbow to the side from Lay.

       "Ugh, whatever, let's just do the next challenge."

       "But-" Suho started.

       "Who's next?" She interrupted him, unwilling to talk about it anymore. She hadn't even given them a chance to ask Chanyeol about his hair- they'd probably figure it out.

       "Um, me." Lay said, raising a hand slightly.

       "What happened to having Luhan do it?"

       "His telekinesis is the limited power, so we figured it's better if, you know... someone with..."

       "Someone with powers did the challenge." She finished for him, still irritated. "Whatever, that's fine." She pressed his name, noting that it grayed out as soon as she did so. Now that she thought about it, Kai and Baekhyun's had been grayed out as well. Maybe the app knew when each person had taken their max number of turns. The trial loaded up, offering a new task for them to complete.

       "Drive 100mph on the freeway," she read out, "With everyone in the car." Continuing, she looked at the italicized text. "You must drive one hundred miles per hour, at least, on a major road (e.g. a road with a speed limit 65 or above and at least two lanes) for at least 120 seconds. If your speed drops below one hundred, your time will reset."

       "Shit." Lay breathed in. "That's pretty wild."

       "What does it matter? You have a license, you know how to drive." Chen pointed out.

       "Yeah, wait, didn't Jackie Chan teach you to drive?" Baekhyun laughed to himself, finding it hilarious.

       "That's not what I'm worried about." Lay snapped. "I just don't want to get ticketed. We're not allowed to tell the police about the trials, or else we're disqualified. And I'm not really interested in finding out exactly what the catch 'failure' means."

       "Most tickets are done by camera now, anyway." Xiumin reassured him.

       "And we're in Kris's car, so he'll get the ticket."

       "Oh hell no, I can't afford another ticket!" Kris groaned. "Go get your own car!"

       "We're wasting time if we do that," Baekhyun pointed out in a fake-nice tone. "It's easier since we just have yours."

       "We also can't all fit, though," Suho pointed out. "If we did happen to get stopped, we'd be in trouble, in more ways than one. Wouldn't getting arrested also breach the trial rules?"

       "At this point, we might as well just risk it." Sehun said. "That's why they're trials, right? They're not gonna be easy. The faster we get through this, the faster we can move on. Plus, it's only two minutes. How hard could it be?"

       Before they knew it, everyone was piled haphazardly into a continuously complaining Kris's car, Lay at the wheel adjusting the seat and the mirrors. Kris kept whining about this, but everyone basically ignored him. Everyone who was able buckled, sometimes two or three per belt. It wasn't exactly the most effective, but it was the best they could do. As Y/N moved to take a seat, she realized that it was basically full.

       "You can have my seat." Kai muttered, moving to get out of the car.

       "And where are you gonna sit, on top of me? You'll crush me." She hissed.

       "Oh... right." Awkwardly moving the belt, he said, "Just sit on my lap, it's only for a few minutes." She looked past him into the other seats, but her options weren't exactly fantastic. She could sit on the floor, and break her neck if they crashed, and out of the boys in the middle seat, he was the biggest. Finally, she relented, wiggling her way into the car as he shut the door behind her. The belt was just long enough to buckle the both of them into the same seat, pressing her downwards and constricting her breathing slightly.

       "Sorry." He mumbled again as Lay started up the car, pulling out to make his way towards the freeway. Breathing in deeply, Lay looked in the rearview mirror.

       "Alright, I guess we're doing this. Who's gonna keep time on the drive?"

       "I have it on the app." Y/N said. "I'll let you know when you're done." They drove down the street, boys whispering under their breath to each other. She briefly heard Kyungsoo once again trying to reassure Luhan about the trials. She was continually growing more and more worried about his adverse reactions to the trials. Of course, they weren't fun for any of them, but he seemed particularly unsettled.

       Suho calmly directed him as they made their way onto the interstate. He obviously hadn't driven in a hot minute, as it wasn't really integral to their daily activities. Honestly, Kris mostly drove, just because he preferred it. Still, that wasn't the trial, so it wasn't an option. He directed the driver to the left lane, explaining the plan.

       "It's the afternoon, so thankfully their direction shouldn't be backed up at all. Going out of the city will be crowded, but hopefully the trail will be done long before we turn around or end up on the other side of the city. Get up to 100 as fast as you can, there's no reason to sit at 80 or 90. Make sure you're safe above anything. We can have multiple shots at this."

       "Of course you would say that." Kris mumbled.

       "The road's clear, get started." Suho directed, leading Lay to slam his foot on the gas pedal. Lurching forward a bit, she tried to keep from looking out the window, simply staring at her screen and waiting for the timer to start. As soon as it did, she swallowed, notifying them,

       "Count is going, maintain at least this speed." The seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly, Kai bringing his chin up over her shoulder to try and see the phone. As they continued at the rate they were driving, Sehun shouted something about the RPM meter that she was too stressed to comprehend. Watching the timer, they passed the thirty second mark, the car began vibrating slightly more violently than usual. As Kris had expensive taste, they weren't worried about the car being able to handle it, but generally if you don't run a car at those speeds consistently, it can be a little stiff. Even so, Kris seemed less concerned about the car breaking, and more concerned that Lay was the first one to be able to drive it so fast.

       As they approached one minute, she was starting to calm down, almost forgetting what was going on. They were still progressing far slower than she could have ever imagined seconds to be, but they were progressing nonetheless. That was, until he slammed on the brakes. The car lurched forward, causing Y/N to hit her head on the back of the seat, kai quickly trying to maneuver to make sure she was okay. She watched as the time paused, then clicked back down to zero.

       "What the hell, man?" Kyungsoo growled.

       "I'm sorry! There's someone in front of me! I can't-"

       "Start again." He demanded. "And this time don't stop. We don't have leeway to deal with this." As the car in front of Lay pulled into the right lane, (too little too late), he was given the room he needed to start again. The timer started again - Thirty seconds came first. The shaking was less severe this time, serving her hypothesis on the car's workings. They passed one minute. One twenty. When they were about to reach a minute and a half, Lay began to make stuttering noises once again.

       "Uh, there's- two car's, I have to stop, I-"

       "Don't stop." Kyungsoo demanded from the back seat.

       "I don't have a choice! I can't rear end a-" Leaning over into the front, Baekhyun grabbed the wheel with one hand, jerking it to the left. The tires spilled over the edge onto the shoulder, crossing over the rumble strips and vibrating the entire vehicle. If not for Lay's quick adverse reaction, they would have smashed into the concrete wall. Missing the other car by mere inches to the right, they managed to pass, barely maintaining their hundred-mile speed.

       "What the fuck?!" Lay screamed, the whole car unsettled by the occurrence, Y/N practically covering her eyes aside from glancing down at the timer.

       "Two minutes!" She shouted suddenly. "That's two minutes! You can-" She hadn't even finished her sentence before Lay slammed on the brakes, pulling off into the shoulder, intentionally this time. As he pressed on the brakes once more, Kai anticipated her falling forward this time, grabbing her by the waist to make sure she didn't slide and hit her head. As soon as they had slowed to a stop, he put the vehicle in park, leaning back and breathing out heavily.

       "What is wrong with you?!" He asked Baekhyun in a loud shout. "That was fucked up!"

       "But we won!" He said with a smile, pointing at Y/N's phone.

       "We could have died!"

       "But we didn't!"

       "But we could have."

       "You could have healed us."

       "Not if I were dead."

       "Okay, then Tao could have reversed time."

       "Not if he were DEAD-"

       "Look, we're fine," Baekhyun held his hands up. "That's all that matters. Let's just keep moving and not think about this too much! Now you don't have any more personal challenges." Breathing in deeply, sweating slightly, Lay looked over.

       "Kris, you're driving us home."

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