24 This Feels Familiar

9.8K 788 267
                                    

Do any of you listen to Steven Universe covers? I love them. Check out this one, Familiar, which goes with the title of this chapter.




Iris~~

The DGSE don't smash down the door.

They knock.

So frustratingly proper.

Meanwhile in the garage, Erik and Bently load food and weapons into the back of Erik's sports car. Colton and I, with guns in our hands, crouch in the doorway connecting the garage to the kitchen.

"Do you think they have a battering ram?"

Colton throws me a look filled with so much loathing I feel I need to apologize for asking such a question. Why would they have a battering ram? That's extreme.

"They wouldn't come all this way without one."

I nod. Gripping the gun tighter, I adjust my weight to my back leg. Wait. I look back at him. "So, they do have a battering ram?"

He throws me the same look, and this time I do apologize.

Either Bently or Colton slams the trunk, and I jump.

"We're ready," Bently announces at the same time the front door splinters, and a man dressed in a soldier's uniform appears in the doorway, his leg slightly raised. He actually kicked down the door. Now that seems extreme.

Colton slams our door shut and points his gun at the garage door as Erik flings it up, revealing a tiny but empty driveway.

Erik gets in the driver's seat while Bently and Colton claim the backrow. I slip in the front passenger seat, and Erik throws the car in reverse. I grip the handle over the door. Bently swears.

As Erik gets the car onto the road and in the right direction, I'm thrown forward and back. He steps on the gas, and though I can't see the DGSE, I hear sirens.

Erik grins at me.

"Eyes on the road."

"Just like old times."

I rub my temples. Yes, just like old times. I'm confronted with images of Erik and I in this same position, me in the passenger seat with no idea how to drive and Erik racing down some empty road. It seemed like we were always either being chased or shot at. Or both.

Flashing lights appear behind us.

This time it's not the same old story; I know how to drive. But Erik and I still aren't getting along. If we're pulled over, there's still some form of doom involved. Other than me knowing how to drive, it really is still the same old story. Boring? Maybe. Though rebels and shootouts kept it interesting in the past. Erik may have shoved me off my timeline long enough to live past my Expiration Date, but it seems as if we're cursed to live our lives in loops.

"You want to crawl in the back and fire at that thing?" he asks, referring to the gun on my thigh.

In the past, I was never too concerned about killing someone. Expiration Dates for all their faults usually insured that I wouldn't kill anyone.

Unless we both were just extremely unlucky and it was their Date.

But here, in France, my bullet won't miss because an Expiration Date says no. No, my bullet will strike true.

Exported [Book 3 in the Expiring Series]Where stories live. Discover now