Traffic [Valduggery, Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction]

Quotes

... and you drink a little too much and try a little too hard. And you go home to a cold bed and think, 'That was fine.'

...

Stephanie sat in the Garda car and watched people pretend like they weren't speeding. It was a fun game she liked to play every once in a while, when she was feeling particularly bored. Today, the sky a cover of gray that seemed to fade into everything below, was one of those days.

She had positioned herself in a bend of the road. People whipped around the curve, caught sight of her car, and slammed on their breaks. Stephanie watched, hoping maybe someone would miss her. A high speed chase. That was what she needed.

Careening around curves with firefight and screaming civilians. Rain-slicked streets that almost threatened to throw her car into a building or a tree, but tire grips so faithful she stayed—

The radio blared.

"Anything, Edgley?"

"About as much as you'd expect," she said back, eyes not leaving the road.

"I heard there's a black car headed your way, sounds like—"

And something sped by her. Stephanie ignored the nasally voice of Winnie and turned the keys. The engine started and then Stephanie was off, sirens blarring on. The car ahead—something old—didn't seem too concerned.

Stephanie cursed as the car a head of her dipped into the opposite lane, sending cars skidding onto the sidewalk. Stephanie debated for only a second before she too passed the car ahead of her. They honked, and she had half a mind to flip them off.

The car ahead smoothly turned left, horns blaring after it. Stephanie cursed again as she sped by the turn, but she caught the next left. The cars ahead leapt out of her way, and soon she was parallel to the black car.

Stephanie pressed the gas, waited until she didn't see the shadow of the speeder, and turned left hard. She passed through a narrow lane, sending a couple scattering onto the sidewalk. Her car slid to a halt in the middle of the intersection.

The black car was gone.

Stephanie gritted her teeth.

"Tailed the car. Got away."

"Got away?"

"Yes. Lost it. It sped away. I did not pull it over. Lost it. Got a location?"

Winnie didn't answer for a moment, and Stephanie stared at the radio, at the static. Reluctantly, Stephanie shut her sirens off and maneuvered into the proper lane, headed back toward her usual spot.

"They're trying to find it now, but most of the other cars..."

Winnie's voice faded into the distance as Stephanie drove. They wouldn't ask her to follow up. That was always another Garda's job. She was just traffic duty, ticket quotas.

The cars at the bend didn't interest Stephanie for the rest of the day. Her mind was elsewhere, on cars that seemed to float above the ground, on impeccable drivers.

As soon as her shift was over, Stephanie switched into her car and drove through the streets. She excused the behavior as her normal routine, didn't admit to herself she was looking for old, black cars. And, like always, she ended up at the tiny dingy bar.

A man hit on her, and Stephanie downed her usual drink until he went away. The bartender, a woman who flirted with anyone for tips and wore an eyepatch, never asked Stephanie why she came in every night. Stephanie appreciated that.

Plus, she was the only bartender who could mix Stephanie's drink the way she liked it. So it pleasantly burned down her throat.

That night, Stephanie curled in her sheets and dreamed about broken windows and strange men with soothing voices who held fire in his hands.