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If Ash had tried to touch me again, I knew I would never be able to bear it. But by myself, I was helpless and inert. Pain. Indescribable, excruciating pain ensured that not even a single inch would be spared of me.

The pain I\'d undergo from the slightest contact, the wails of utter agony that\'ll resound across these very walls... more pain was the last thing I desired.

Ash understood that fact well and clear.

That\'s why her hands, blotched slender outlines from my point of view, would tremble and shake as she slowly, nervously lowered them around me.

Because more pain was what she was about to afflict me with.

I heard her voice, a fading echo that seemed so far away. What she said, how she said it, I do not know. But her face, her eyes, past the tears that streamed down my own, spoke louder than any yell I could muster.

"Forgive me."

I didn\'t know when, I didn\'t know how.

Everything and anything was a glaring light that blinded sight.

Pain. Was it even pain? The sensation? The feeling?

My lips were opened, both jaws stretching to their widest… I couldn\'t hear my own screams.

Convulsing, twitching… I felt my every limb flailing violently - a frenzied sway across the open air.

The open air.

No floors, no hard surfaces. The only point of contact I felt, where the gentle hands gripping firmly at my back.

Echoes, again. Faint echoes meeting my screams of pain. Closer now. In distress, and just as desperate as I. A warm breath caressing against the surface of my face. Over and over again, it blew.

"Just a little longer. Please, bear with it a little longer."

Over time, after a long grueling moment that seemed to last for an eternity, the screaming stopped, the flailing and twitching had ceased its spree. Everything came to a standstill.

My lips stayed shut. Echoes were no longer echoes. Ash\'s voice, leveled, and stifling panic, could be heard loud and clear.

"Far enough away. The Blightfall\'s influence can\'t sway you as strongly from here," She said, heaving and panting. "Still, keep silent, Master. It is imperative you not speak during the Blight."

Pain was still very much a constant factor. Everything ached and sored just as much as it did before. The only difference now was that I could limit myself to only sharp hisses of pain.

The tears had stopped flowing and my vision gradually returned itself back to me, and the first thing that greeted my squinting eyes up above was a vast ocean of dim fluorescent lights and the dirty stains of grey concrete.

That combined with Ash\'s echoing footsteps in a humming quiet ambiance told me all I needed to know.

We\'ve finally reached.

Underground parking. Black Porsche. Ash\'s head kept swinging to and fro, scouring all around, searching and searching, all the while not having the faintest trace of what the hell a Porsche even was.

I felt the car keys as a jingling lump between her left hand and my back. The answer to her conundrum was just right there. Up and down I went in her arms, a bumpy, rough discomforting ride exacerbated further by the lingering pain…

Couldn\'t take it any longer. I let my lips spread apart once more.

"Keys…" I croaked feebly. "Button... on car keys."

Ash looked down at me, an urgency in her expression. "Master, do not risk - !"

"Press the button!"

Her footsteps stopped. Now there was just the humming buzz of the air vents. Confusion narrowed her eyes but she did as was told. I felt both her hand and the sharp lump stop supporting the lower end of my body, at the same time, she lowered herself to a crouch, allowing my feet to hit the paved concrete floor.

My neck rested against her other arm, pillared, and inclined high enough to catch a view of her fiddling with a small rectangular object between her fingers. Couldn\'t offer any more advice from here, a single word stung at my throat worse than anything else.

Speaking… it was out of the equation now. Plus, if what she said was true, and I have no reason to doubt that it was, then I was far better off for it. Point A to Point B - it was up to her to connect the dots from here.

Every second spent was a second more I was writhing in torment. Time was a luxury that neither of us had. It was crucial that there wasn\'t a single moment in time where we - or she mostly, found herself hesitating.

She wasn\'t hesitating. That object, firm and outstretched, her thumb pushed, clicked… and a car\'s chirp resounded from afar.

There was an audible gasp of relief, a shuffle of movement, gently I found myself being hoisted up by both her arms once more.

Looking back, this date today could have gone in enough unexpected ways to fill up an entire galaxy. Me getting the princess-carry treatment as I lay feeling like death in her arms, seeking refuge from a storm of blood while utilizing a Mob Boss\'s personal vehicle as our only means of transportation would probably be the great big black hole at the epicenter of that galaxy.

It took more time than I would have liked to get me settled in on the passenger side of the car, mostly due to the fact every attempt to plop my aching ass down on the car seat would send me reeling to a world of pain like no other.

But, after fits of numerous hissing and grunting, I felt the back of my head cushioned by the soft sensation of genuine leather - mustering all effort, I reached up for the seatbelt and buckled myself in tight.

Ash sat beside me, hands on the wheel, like a deer in headlights, the sheer number of buttons and levers that were available at her disposal proved too daunting a sight for her to immediately comprehend.

There was a lot more than just pedals this time.

From driving bumper cars to an actual sports car, Ash was seriously moving up in the world. Perhaps a bit more sudden than she would have liked.

Any other time, I\'d be quick to jump on relaying the basics onto her, get her to be on the training wheels mindset. Unfortunately, this was not any other time, she\'s going to have to learn on the fly - and fast.

A pulled lever here, a button pressed there. Gradually at first, but it wasn\'t long before the button-mashing began. Firsts times and first steps were always the most confusing parts of learning anything.

But finding the ignition shouldn\'t be that confusing.

I was tempted to speak out, risk and pain be damned, I had my lips already slightly agape… the button was right there, I was staring at it - then suddenly, I was staring at something obstructing it, another clueless press on another random button, and the LED displays on the dashboard flickered to life, the on-board LCD panel chimed a friendly greeting, but the most welcoming sound to grace my ears was the soft whirr of the car engine rumbling away on standby.

Ash\'s ears soared high, and her eyes returned a faint glimmer of hope in them. She glanced briefly at me, nodding her head like everything was going to be fine, but it looked as if the gesture was more to her own benefit than mine, cause that same headlight-stricken expression was here to stay.

Pedals and the wheels, with everything else left to the wayside. With her focus directed to just these two things, was it any surprise that her pressing a foot against the gas pedal did not move us in the slightest?

A mystery for sure that required the greatest of wits to fully unravel. Her mind was like an open book, it as if her inner thoughts were inscribed in the creases on her forehead.

So easily she could express herself.

I wish I could too. If my thoughts were given voice, they\'d be screaming to infinity and beyond what she was supposed to be doing.

"Was there something I overlooked perhaps?" I heard her mutter to herself, reverting back to pushing buttons and pulling levers once again. It was like an impulse for her.

If it worked once, it\'d work twice, I suppose.

But the answer was so simple yet again. That little stick in between the both of us, going unnoticed and untouched.

Gear-shifting was a lot more complex than just a push of a pedal and a turn of a wheel. I realized that if we were ever going to leave this place, it was going to be a two-person effort.

So, feebly, with trembling fingers, I grabbed hold of the handle, and shifted us into drive.

Biggest mistake I could have made then. I mean, granted, having some rationality in my state of being was completely out the window… yet you could argue it was basic common sense but still...

How was I to know her foot was still on the go pedal?

It wasn\'t until I heard the screeching of the tires that I realized that I made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment, and for that, I sincerely apologize to my aching self.

Thank God for seatbelts. And for the solid wall in front of us. Colliding into it was a fate far better than accelerating unprepared into an even further one.

Took everything I had to keep my mouth shut and not shatter the windows with my screams. On the bright side, I knew for once, that the teardrops leaking out from my eyes right then were 100% of my own volition.

Ash jerked back, both hands in the air, and feet well off the pedals.

"Forgive this mishap," She said to me. "It won\'t happen again. Commandeering this vehicle, it\'s just as before, yes? Think of it as a sword."

For the sake of not crumbling what little faith she still had in herself, I simply nodded at her in return.

But I knew in my heart of hearts, that we were woefully ill-prepared for the open road ahead.

Not just yet.

From what little I saw of the parking lot - I knew that the place was almost deserted and the corners turns were sharp.

Perhaps going a little slow and steady wouldn\'t hurt us in the long run. I could bear with the pain just a little longer if it was to spare us from an ever greater in the future.

My voice croaked out again, soreness swelling in the depths of my throat, a single word, a single risk - to avoid an even bigger risk somewhere out there.

A little trial run around the block, a simple crash course for the basics.

Just a little bit of -

"Practice."