Vagabond of the Night

The police sirens blared and swished past me, as if I were a mere phantom invisible to the human eyes. The red and blue lights on the tiny police car seemed like a child’s toy rather than the gravity it was supposed to possess. I could feel adrenaline coursing through my veins, but the rush was surprisingly relaxing. My body was used to this tingling excitement of danger, to play with fire. Literally.

The flames danced underneath the soot black sky, as if in a ritual of its own. Smoke filled the air as it got warmer by the heat radiating from the fire source. The scent of burning wood itched the back of my throat, and it took me immense amount of restraint to not cough. I was a child of darkness, and darkness was my camouflage. It was surreal to see the bright dazzling fire from here, amidst the people crowding the dying wooden bungalow like moths drawn to flames. Soon, there were yet more blaring coming from the huge red fire-brigade truck. Finally, it reached, I thought to myself.

I gradually trudged back to my car: my steps were silent like muffled screams. My head was down, desperate to avoid any eye contact. The dilapidated car, which acted as my loyal steed for all these years, stood there patiently under the enormous birch tree. I cautiously got in and revved the engine. It was deafening to me, but in the middle of the chaos surrounding the blazes of flames, it was no louder than a mouse’s squeak.

The old Corolla sped across the empty highway with agile speed. The highway, silver and smooth as a serpent, winded forward with no end in sight. The grey steel borders on the edges of the road stood motionless and faded into the shadows of slender tall trees behind. The moon was nothing more than a silver dime lighting up the dark void beneath. The swishes of air swept pass my open window, with a hiss and continuous playful slaps on my dust-coated face. The smell of bitumen mixed with the stingy scent of gasoline was home to me.

The whole road was empty, soulless and quiet. It was as if I were in a parallel universe. I pressed the accelerator harder, and harder. The swishing vroom of the car made me comfortable in a sense I could never explain. I felt light-headed, flying across the dimly moonlit sky.

I noticed a dark figure approaching me with gaining speed on my side glass. It was a private car- slightly larger than mine. Even in the dark I could make out its white new paint on the car frame and its streamlined shape easily overcoming resistance and speeding up. I smirked inwardly as I pressed my decelerator gently. The car behind me nearly reached my speed……. now.

I pushed the accelerator hardest I could and zoomed up forwards. I could see a row of short edifices on both sides of the road, standing peacefully in slumber. There had to be a locality around here. I slowed down a bit as I reached the starting of the row. From my side glass I could see the car was more than 100 meters behind me, and needed much, much greater speed to parallel my speed. I scanned the rows for a narrow alley to shift to, which I gladly found quicker than expected. Taking a swift left, I drove right into a narrow dark street overshadowed by buildings with increasing heights.

I could hear a grumble of another engine coming from behind. Just in time, I said to the empty car. I did not speed up my car this time; the street was narrow enough to only let one car go front one time.

Except for me and that anonymous person chasing me, there was no sound. Just the quiet rumbles of two engines cutting through the night still air. There were no lights on any building, no sound, shutters all closed and doors all locked. No nightly songs of crickets, nor the swishes of trees in the nocturnal breezes. It was a town in deep sleep, with no disturbance to its eerily perfect peacefulness.

The white car smoothly passed through the narrow alley following my suite, like a white panther behind a determined prey. It more often than not caught up to the speed my old dear car, only to cough in the smoke trails given off behind the dilapidated car. This car was more honest to me than any loyal fan to their popstar, and I admired her strong-willed reverence to a fugitive as such myself.

She smelled of leaking octane and rotting leather, mixed with cigarette smokes and greasy sweat. It was euphoric, that little vehicle. The black leather, dulled by time, peeled of the car seats. The steering wheel was oily with the sweat from my greasy palms. Used, old cigarettes poked up on the ash-tray beside me….

Time to play with my sweet hunter again, so pedaled the accelerator once more. The engine on the car behind me revved up as well, annoyance lacing its growl. I chuckled to myself, as I pressed the brakes slowly to let the white fury behind reach up. That was when the realization fell on me like a thud: my brakes had had failed.

The thrill that came with the panic was what a crazy man craved, and I was no exception. I had danced with the death under the starry skies a lot of time. Death was something desperate to get to me, by all the means it could. The adrenaline jolted across my vein, as precipitates of sweat formed on my forehead and on my palms. I swished and turned through multiple streets, trying to buy me some time to formulate a plan to escape my demise….

However, like the naïve police officers hunting me down across the country, death had to wait a long, long time to catch me in its embrace. I spotted a gasoline station as I turned into one of the unending networks of streets. This was it. I got a plan.

I found my way to return back towards the station after travelling through the maze of alleys. Unlatching the door, I took one last glance on the side-view mirror. Yes, my white panther was coming. I grabbed my duffel bag on one arm while keeping the other hand on the steering wheel. My hands instinctively felt my pocket for my revolver. It was there, which calmed my spiked-up nerve a tiny bit. All these was happening in a whirlwind of a second.

“Farewell, my noble steed,” I whispered gently to my car and kissed its steering wheel one last time. The gasoline station was approaching me at light-speed. This was it. I sprung out of the car, and threw my lighted lighter towards my car.

The obsolete vehicle drove right into the tanks of gasoline, the white car still following its trail. There was sudden boom, and the bright yellow flames hissed out dancing into the dark night. The whole town was awake now; I could see some curious heads peeking out of their windows while some courageously forward to inspect the fires themselves.

I put on my hoodie and took my head down. Like a child of darkness, I disappeared into the black night without a single trace…….