Rose Gold - Prologue

11:48 PM.

                There wasn’t a single car passing through the narrow street beside Neuza to help light her way. The sky didn’t show any signs of stars, it was pitch black. She strained her eyes against the darkness and forced her eyes to stay open as she drove 180 km/h. Neuza had been driving this way for over an hour. Her arm was losing blood from a wound caused by a 9mm. She glanced up at the rearview mirror for the hundredth time to see if they were following her. At last she felt like she had finally shook them off her trail. She let out a sigh of relief, but she did not bring her foot off the gas pedal to slow down any. She couldn’t stop now, she couldn’t slow down. She needed to put more space between them. The more the better. Despite the pain in her arm, her adrenaline was overpowering all other senses. She felt awful and knew that she was starting to show physical signs of the trauma of the shot.

                As she pressed her foot down to accelerate a loud noise echoed through her car and she had about a moment to dodge a fallen tree that was on the road before her. As she quickly maneuvered around it her weak arm gave way and she lost her grip on the steering wheel. She gripped it quickly with her other hand but the car was already spinning. The car stopped abruptly with a loud crash against a large pine tree. Her hand was shaking and she was panting in panic, her head lying against the steering wheel to catch her breath. Neuza needed to calm herself down if she wanted to get away from them. They could catch up to her at any moment. She raised her head and looked to her right arm. She was bleeding through the leather jacket, the bullet hole in the jacket soaked with her blood. With her other arm she gently pulled the sleeve off her injured arm and turned to the bag she had with her. She found a scarf inside and tied it around her arm to hopefully stop the bleeding.

                A sound of another car’s engine rang in her ears. Was it coming from behind or in front of her? She sincerely prayed for the former possibility otherwise she would be lost. She looked in front of her but didn’t see any light coming her way. That meant that they were on her trail again. DAMMIT!  She thought to herself and quickly got to her senses. Neuza picked up her bag from the side seat and got out of the car. She was blocked in everywhere she looked. There was nothing around, save for trees and the sound of water…The sound of water! It meant that she was near a river! The girl walked across the street and if it weren’t for the reflection of the water she would have fallen in. An idea struck her when she saw the river and she quickly returned back to the car. She tried the ignition but it wouldn’t start. She shoved the car into neutral and pushed it towards the direction of the river. After it got closer to the river, it slid right down towards the river. She heard it crash into the water but didn’t have time to contemplate on what to do next. She walked the opposite direction from her car and walked into the forest.

                Barely into the forest she heard a car whiz by. They hadn’t stopped to investigate. For her sake the plan had worked. It seemed they weren’t aware of her car over in the riverbed. The sounds of the howling win and running water helped to conceal any clues. She still couldn’t risk going to the street. Neuza knew that returning to the street there would be a possibility of someone passing by and giving her a ride. But that gave the probability of being intercepted again. Thus, she turned and decided to head deeper into the forest.


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