Being the daughter of the once most dominant street racer in town, Alystabella Cassidy was a force to be reckoned with, winning street race after street race in her beloved car, Obsidian. But when her driving talents were recognised, she was offered...
"Hey Lyst!" a voice called out from the crowd. "Some egotistic complacent dude thinks he can beat you!"
Lyst turned towards the direction where the voice came from, and nodded to her best friend before sinking down into her comfortable bucket seat.
Without much illumination within the interior of her car, Lyst could barely see anything under the steering wheel. Despite that, she expertly navigated her car keys to the keyhole and turned.
The crowd immediately went silent as they heard the engine of Lyst's car roar to life. It was a familiar sound to them, and they knew what was to come. They jumped to the side of the road, paving the way for the heavily modified, lavender BMW to reach the junction ahead, where a street race was about to start.
A makeshift start-finish line was spray-painted on the road where the junction was located. As Lyst approached that line, her eyes landed on a green Aston Martin Vantage in pristine condition, parked beside her. Inside, a man - no, a boy who seemed to have just gotten his driving licence less than 2 weeks ago rolled down his windows.
"Ready to lose, grid girl?" he teased.
"Oh no, a V8 Vantage! How on Earth can I outperform you? I'm so scared..."
"You should be," he smirked, the kind that makes you want to punch him in the face to make it vanish but somehow it would never be gone. "Remember, I will not go easy on you."
What an arrogant individual he is... Guess I'll show him what arrogant really means.
As soon as the boy winded his windows back up, Lyst scoffed. He has a nice car too, this spoiled child, she noticed. Wouldn't it be such a shame if he breaks any part of that car during this race... I wonder what his father would think of him...
Lyst patted her car on the dashboard. "You got this, Obsidian."
A brunette-haired woman came forward and stood between the two cars. In her hand held chequered flag. "Ready?" she asked the two drivers. Both of them signalled a thumbs-up.
Then she raised her arm and started counting down from 5. Lyst made sure she stepped on the clutch and accelerator of her car. As she did so, the engine of her car roared louder and louder, even audible from even a few hundred metres away. The Aston Martin boy followed suit, but immediately realised his car is not nearly as loud as Lyst's. Nonetheless, he shoved any signs of weakness deep within him and kept his face straight.
"Go!" The woman declared after her countdown. Immediately both cars sped past her, the wind from the cars blowing her hair all over the place. "I should've worn my hair up today, damn it!" she muttered under her breath.
Lyst had a better start, or perhaps it was because her car was modified to be an ideal racecar. Either way, she pulled away from the green Aston Martin, and the crowd cheered in approval. However, as a stock car, the Aston Martin was way more slippery through the air, and it probably had more power than Obsidian too. Soon, it caught up with the BMW ahead of it, much to Lyst's annoyance.
Both cars were neck and neck into the first corner, but Lyst's car was far more nimble and agile. She swept through the corner effortlessly while the Aston Martin had a little moment as its wheels slid on the road, making a sharp screeching sound that caused the crowd to grimace a little.
Lyst pulled away from the corner, and she heard the screeching sound behind her, followed by a small thud as the beautiful green Aston Martin curbed one of its wheels. "Ouch," she feigned a wince, but that wince quickly turned into a grin. "That's what you get for being overconfident, moron." She showed no sympathy for that boy at all, and pulled away even further from him as she completed the street race.
The Aston Martin boy thought he and his car would be superior to Lyst and her Obsidian, he really did. But oh boy, he couldn't have been more wrong.
When he finally completed the race, he pulled over to see a smiling Lyst leaning on Obsidian. He exited his car and sauntered towards the girl with auburn hair. "Look, I know I messed up there, but I want a re-"
"Oh, sorry. What did you say? I couldn't hear you over the sound of your ego shattering," Lyst cut him off mid-sentence.
That's what you get, she thought. But it sure feels good to be snarky.
"Hey!" the boy frowned at her. "I will not admit defeat and we will have a rematch."
"If you insist," Lyst simply gave him a fake smile, before driving off in her beloved Obsidian, together with her best friend Ashley.
The boy looked at the purple BMW in the distance, clenching his fist before leaving the venue. He had a lot of explaining to do when he met his boss that night.
***
Lyst had a dream that night. But it wasn't just any dream, but in fact, a flashback of the day her parents perished.
She shot up from her bed, sweat dripping from her forehead. Why did she have this flashback again? Why did her consciousness want her to witness that moment of her life again and again? What could she do to prevent these memories from haunting her in the future?
These were questions that she did not want to think about at that point in time, especially when it's 3am in the morning.
In a final attempt to suppress whatever was going on in her mind, she opened her cabinet and took out a few sleeping pills. She threw them into her mouth, and gulped them down in one go. She returned back to her bedroom, threw herself onto the warm, sweaty bed and let her body fall into the state of rest known as sleep.
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Hey again! I have nothing to talk about so I'll just get on with the questions...
1. How do you like Lyst's character so far?
2. What's your favourite subject in school? (mine is physics)
