It was another beautiful night for rampant crime in the city of Avihelm. Cassia felt the balmy night breeze ruffle the loose strands of her hair. She tightened her hands around the wheel of her car, knuckles white. The jitters raced up and down her arms, nerves pooling in her stomach. The abandoned warehouse sector was flooded with rare activity. Seven gangs had made their way into Avihelm to see the action. The flagger was speaking with the race official, all twelve cars surrounding Cassia’s purring with excitement. 

“Ready to lose, Aura?” a voice called from her left. Aliases were common within the racer– and gang– circuits. Famously, though, they were earned, never given.

Cassia resisted the urge to roll her eyes, grinning. “You wish, hot shit!” she yelled back to her best friend and fellow racer, Leo Black. Who most certainly knew her name. He loved to do things like this, though, just to rile up the people around them.  

“Oi, I’ve got a boyfriend!” 

“Oh trust me, we know!” 

Leo cackled, leaning back in his seat. Cassia chuckled, looking out her passenger window. The car next to her sported completely blacked out windows, keeping  its occupant hidden. It was one of the few cars on the track that she didn’t recognize, and it was making her antsy with excitement. She relished a new challenge like it was prey. 

Cassia let a hand fall to the touchpad on her center console, feeling the car connect to her neuropiece.

These races were so expensive—and illegal—because they ran with experimental cars that almost exclusively made rounds on the dark market. Cassia, and everyone she knew, for that matter, was adept at fighting in an auction for a good car.

 A neuropiece wasn’t hard to come by, it was basic tech that almost everyone had. It was a net of nodes that laid on the inside of the skull, tracking brain activity and thought, allowing someone to control anything that’s compatible with their mind. Most buildings and homes were outfitted with neuropiece tech.

Even with the commodity of the neuropieces, there were restrictions. However, crime was a language that these gang members spoke fluently. Nearly every car on the track had illegal neuromodifications. Most of the gangs had worked on their cars until the tech was completely stable. Cassia’s car, being tapped into her neuropiece, could read her thoughts and neural impulses. It sorted between them and decided what it should be listening to and what was absent thought.

 Cassia could feel the excitement building in her blood, mounting tension in her shoulders. She willed it to relax, settling down into the soft leather of the seat.

She sent her mind into the place she had learned to trust over the years, a spot in her head reserved for the dangerous situations that she often found herself in. She let it filter through, tucking all of her other thoughts away for after the race.  

The flagger began strutting over to the middle of the track. She gripped her steering wheel, eyes never leaving the green flag. Waiting… waiting… 

The flagger’s arm dropped, and Cassia’s foot slammed into her gas pedal, her car roaring to life around her. She had one word bouncing around her head, one that she could feel her car eating up. Faster. She shot ahead of most of the other competitors, making sure to throw a middle finger to Leo out of her driver’s side window. Her friend was close behind her. His front fender was eager to brush her driver’s side door. As seasoned racers with their level of skill,  it was about the small victories. 

Shockingly, Cassia also found the mystery car on her passenger side, holding nearly steady. She had half a mind to feel cornered. 

Cassia, Leo, and the mystery driver approached the first hairpin turn none too soon. Cassia drifted into the turn, swinging the back end of her car out wide. She felt her car compensate, sensing her actions as she made them. It controlled her turn, occasionally pressing the brake to keep her arc clean. The mystery driver was forced away into the outside of the turn, putting more distance between Cassia and themself. She smirked, but her smile immediately dropped into a gape as she returned her gaze to the track in front of her. Leo’s back end was staring back at her. She pressed into her accelerator harder, as if her car wasn’t already giving it everything it had. 

Cassia drafted behind Leo’s car, holding to the inside of the track with him. They approached the next turn, a regular curve leading out of the warehouse they were currently barreling through. Cassia knew that her car had more raw speed than Leo’s did. She maneuvered into a drift, tilting her car to the outside of the track. She ended her perfect arc pulling steady with him, grinning ear to ear. She found the mystery car reflected in her mirrors, inching up on both of them from behind. 

If she was faster than Leo, then the mystery car was definitely faster than her. In a Strixung Flight, Cassia’s car was a great all-around car. The Dreyo Nightstalker that the mystery racer was sporting had been built with nothing but speed and stealth in mind. If they were good, the mystery driver could put her in second place without her ever knowing.

They flew down a small straightaway through a garage door opening into another warehouse. It was dank and cold, the air musty as it infiltrated Cassia’s cabin. She knew that there was a final hairpin turn that was fast approaching, the most deadly of the course. She checked her mirrors and found the Dreyo nearly touching her back fender. Leo was still holding steady next to her with the inside advantage. Cassia gritted her teeth. She was out of options, and as raucous cheering began to reach her, she realized she was out of time, too. 

She made her decision, tilting her wheel to knock into Leo’s car right before they approached the turn. Cassia didn’t glance in his direction as she slammed her brakes for a quick moment, feeling the impact of the Dreyo shudder through her bones. A warning flashed in the corner of her vision, alerting her to the damage, but her car was already picking its speed back up. She shifted into the new opening Leo had left on the inside after trying to correct his car. Cassia drifted into the turn at the last second. 

They pulled out of the turn together, Leo now on the outside and just behind her. Cassia pulled ahead on the inside. She whooped and stomped her foot into the pedal so hard she thought it might go through the floor. 

She flew over the finish line just ahead of Leo, drifting her car to a stop. 

She jumped out of her car, fist raised high. The cheers were deafening. The people loved violence on the track almost as much as they loved it in their lives. 

Leo spun her around by her shoulder, a grin splitting his face. “What the fuck was that?” he shouted over the din. The crowds were flooding the track, everyone coming to congratulate their favored racer. 

“I needed to win,” Cassia replied simply. 

“You’re fucking deranged. That was beautiful,” Leo said, slinging his arm over her shoulders. Cassia laughed. 

“Where’s Ryder?” she asked him. 

She watched as Leo cast his eyes around. “He should be here somewhere… I think he’s in the next race,” Leo said. 

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Leo’s boyfriend and Cassia’s childhood friend, Ryder Medina, was breaking through the crowd. 

“Can you ever finish a single race without damaging one of my cars?” he immediately asked Cassia, arms crossed over his chest. His expression would be formidable behind the mask covering the lower half of his face if Cassia couldn’t see the pride dancing in his eyes. 

“Hey, I paid for the Flight fair and square,” Cassia protested. 

“And I had to do all the work to get it race-ready. Now I’m going to have to do all that work again,” Ryder complained, leaning into Leo as he let go of Cassia and slid his arm around Ryder’s waist. 

“And I’ll be ever so grateful to you, just like always,” Cassia replied, batting her eyelashes.

Ryder rolled his eyes, but he knocked her shoulder lightly with a fist. “It was a beautiful race. I’m going to have to work hard to put it to shame.” 

“Just don’t work hard then. It’s what you’re good at, anyway,” Cassia said slyly. Ryder squawked, slapping her more firmly on the shoulder. 

Cassia snickered. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to attend to my adoring fans.” 

Leo and Ryder rolled their eyes in tandem before turning away from her. She waded into the crowd, shaking hands and greeting the other racers. She found many familiar faces, catching up with people that she hadn’t seen in months. Between the distance and the workload of being highly ranked in a gang, it was hard for her to keep up friendships that weren’t in her immediate area. 

This was why she raced, above all: the people. The pure adoration of hundreds of people out of pure respect. To her friends, she was Cassia Reja, but to these people, she was Aura, and she had power. She wasn’t too humble to admit that she loved it. 

“Aura!” a voice cut through the crowd. Cassia whipped around, searching. A man was staring her down, his eyes positively arresting, their color a murky green that resembled moss. He had a smug smirk on his face. He was sporting a white bomber jacket with black jeans and combat boots. If it weren’t for the chrome detailing on the boots and jacket, she might not have had a guess. He strode up to her, pride oozing off of him like tar.

“What can I do for you, third place?” she asked. 

He stopped directly in front of her, forcing her to look up at him. His soft brown hair ruffled in the breeze. “I want a rematch.” 

She cocked her head to the side. “So eager to lose again?” 

“Not at all. I won’t let you win again,” he replied smoothly. 

Cassia felt her top lip curl up. She hated overconfidence, especially when undeserved. “I’ll bite, just to wipe the fucking floor with you again. When and where?” 

The man’s eyes darkened. “Isn’t there another race in downtown Emperarun next week? I would assume you’ll be there.” 

“I had planned on it.” 

“Then I’ll just win against you there. The other competitors don’t matter, as long as I beat you,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Okay. I’ll see you in Emperarun, then.” He nodded, smirking again. He had turned on his heel when Cassia called out again. “They given you a name yet?” 

“Quicksilver,” he said, not turning around. Cassia stared after him until the crowd closed around him. She felt a foreboding slithering over her shoulders, and she didn’t know how to shake it. 

“Making enemies again?” Leo broke her haze as he came to stand next to her. 

“Of course,” Cassia said immediately. She smiled. “When am I not?” 

Leo laughed. “Atta girl. Let’s get our cars off the track. Next race is about to start,” he said, beginning to walk over to their cars. 

“Are we still good for dinner after with Petra?” Cassia asked. She hadn’t seen the other woman in months. She missed her best friend like a lost limb. 

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss Cinte’s fried food for the world,” Leo said, looking to the sky wistfully.

Cassia laughed. “Good. Nadia got us a spot to watch Ryder, so we can meet up with her once we park.” 

“Sounds good. I’ll follow you.” 

Cassia saluted him as he left her for his own vehicle. She slid into her driver's seat, the engine purring to life as soon as her neuropiece connected to the car. 

Cassia decided that she was going to stop thinking about mossy green eyes and rematches and focus on her friends for the rest of the evening.   

About the Author

Above all, Theo is a chocolate milk connoisseur. He can generally be found putsing around campus and potentially keeping up with the degree that he signed up for. 

Instagram: @theo.donwey

Cover design made using Canva design tools.