And they came after him.
They pedalled for a while, the church was few minutes before sight. They were having a conversation about Fr. Nicholas. Fr. Nicholas had announced his transfer a Sunday earlier, he was being transferred to a church in the city. Everyone knows how much he loves this church in this little town, it was his home. As long as Simon and Jessica could remember, He's been their with them. Surely everyone would miss Fr. Nicholas. He took this one Sunday so as to bid his final farewells. Literally, everyone wasn't so excited but they were happy that he was getting a promotion. He was already a part of them - the town.
Simon was cautious of his environment as they biked to church. His eyes were fixated on her and his sense were at alert for any sudden change. She was ahead of him. He sure hoped that they'd get to church safely. He just couldn't act like he wasn't bothered. He was being circumspective.
"Would you please slow down a bit? You're ahead of me." He called for Jessica. He wanted to stay closer to her just incase anything tries to happen.
"That's right, a race won't be bad you know?" Her voice screamed mischief. He was agitated by her reply, that wasn't the reply he was expecting.
He had to think fast. Sudden flashes of his dream came wavering across his head. He began panicking. He sped up, trying to come in same pace with her. She turned to get his expression and she saw him speeding up. She felt he wanted to overtake her and take first place. She wasn't going to let that. You want race right? She chuckled and began pedalling as fast as she could. She was way past him, he could not get to her with the speed she was onto.
"Jessica!!!" She heard a thunderous voice. This voice sent a terrifying shiver down her spine, she was forced to a brake aghast by the crashing voice she had just heard. She stopped right on the road not wary of where she stood.
She turned back to know where the voice was crashing from - that very deep scary voice just can't be Simon's. Simon stood away from his bicycle. It laid on the road while he stood in the middle of the left side of the road. His brooding eyes were fixated on Jessica. 'Was that Simon?' She asked her self inwardly.
Confusion consumed her face, her brain was slowly processing everything. What's to be processed? She doesn't even understand what's going on. A race, now he's off bike? Standing on the other side of the road. She was trying to catch up on how it all happened. She was at speed. The distance between her and Simon was not a lot, she was going to walk to where he was.
She got off her bicycle, held on to the flat bars and dragged as she walked towards his direction. She couldn't see his eyes, his glasses were reflecting the sun that peeked through the heavy sky. He just stood motionless on the road.
Now she was walking towards him, he dragged his feet to walk towards her as well. He was struggling to get snap out his trance of a dream. Those feelings he had felt in his dream were gradually becoming a reality. The sinister cold breeze. The unfathomable feeling kicking behind his head. It's all become too much. It was in his heart and his head. He didn't know what to do right there and then. He couldn't save them of anything we're to happen right now. His heart nipped in distress. It was a great thing that she was coming coming down. Now all he has to do was to calm down and think, to think of an easy way to avert any dangers. Ugh!! Their brains were being so boringly slow.
"Simon?"
He jolted back to reality, just as he was about lifting his feet to take another step towards her, he felt the very disturbing cold breeze blow. It came from her direction. It sent her hair flowing with the current it caused leaving some strands of her hair flew over her face, blocking her vision. She stood still to take them off from her face. Just as it happened in his dream, she wasn't aware of the change in wind, the choking and oppressing atmosphere. He increased his steps, he wanted to get to her as quickly as he could.
In an instant, a fast moving 16-wheeler truck was coming just right behind her. The thrilling follow-up was that this 16-wheeler was silent. There was no loud moving sound to imply that such a big vehicle was approaching and even at a great speed. She wasn't aware of what was going on.
Simon's steps, it turned to a fast growing race to her. His heart beat increased by rapid beats, there was no way he was getting to her before this truck, it's speed was just way much and Simon? He's just human, there was no way he was getting to her before that truck.
The crippling feeling of loosing his friend again in reality was already overwhelming him. He wasn't fast enough. He had to worry, no way! She'd be leaving soon. He just couldn't but he wasn't stopping in his race.
"Sorry can't save you now." With teary eyes he yelled.
In a split second he felt the breeze from the fast moving truck against him, the truck had just collided. His heart pinched very hard. His eyes welled up with tears.
"It's not true." He muffled under his breath.
"What the hell did I do?" He had just grabbed Jessica before the truck collided with her bicycle. She was over him. He had fallen from the impulse of his split second action. He had somehow manoeuvred his speed to grab her by her waist before the truck came colliding.
He did it. He had crashed on the ground preventing any harm from affecting her. He took the crash to save her. He wasn't feeling any pain, his adrenaline level was way above high, his heart beat had rushed beyond up, his chest rising and falling as he drags in the suffocating air through his nostrils. Tears trickled down his face as he still lay down there with Jessica on top of him. He rested his head backwards and lifted it again to observe Jessica to make sure she was very fine.
She definitely wasn't. Her body had no harm but her eyes were lost confusion. She didn't understand what had just happened, it took her a while to get out of the shock she was under. She was dumbfounded, in shock to even speak. Last she remembered was she was trying to pull off some strands of her and in a bolt out of the blue she was pulled by a very strong force and now she's on Simon's body.
She was too shocked to speak. When she got her resolve, her eyes fell on Simon. He was watching her with a happy gaze. 'Why was he looking at her that way with tears.' She was so confused. She got down from him and took a standing position.
"Simon?" She she pulled off the hair that fell on her face and tucked them behind her ears. She observed her surroundings, her eyes caught a fast moving truck fading in the distance and her bicycle which was a wreck, kicked off many distance away. Her eyes, filled with lots of questions, fell on Simon again.
Simon stood up and dusted his shirt off. He was just glad he had saved her. Whatever means that was, it didn't matter now. What matters is that she was safe and fine - just the shock. 'Now where was his glasses?' He didn't know where it had fallen and surprisingly he could see clearly. That was a breakthrough for him. He saw it just few distance away, he turned to go get it.
"Oh my God, Simon." Jessica rushed towards him. His back was bloodied. She couldn't behold such sight, she was scared for Simon. His back was covered in blood, he had a large injury on his back and he was walking just fine.
He already had his glasses in his hand. He quickly turned back to know why she screamed. She had tears rolling down her cheeks. Simon quickly wiped off his face to make sure those tears from earlier were no longer there. He wore his glasses and sprinted to her.
"What's wrong Jess?" He grabbed her by her shoulders with a worried face to know what was wrong with her. He was way taller than her.
"Simon!" She frail voice cracked.
"Are you alright?" He asked while looking down on her. Her eyes were fixated on his chest. She slowly looked up to him to meet his eyes.
She was worried about him and his face could tell he was so worried about her too.
"Jess? Are you —" she cuts him immediately with her eyes welling in tears.
"Your back. You're hurt!" Her eyes finally met his. She was so sad. He was being really strong and that what made her cry.
He pulled his left hand off her shoulder and touched his back.
"Oh!" He said as he saw his bloodied hand.
"I'm fine." He smiled at her. He was being truthful. He didn't feel the pain though it was evident that he had injured, probably from the crash.
"Is that why you're crying!" He laughed at his friend's dramatic exhibit. She wasn't being dramatic though but he saw it as though.
She grabbed him in a tight hug no minding his bloodied back. Tears fell effortlessly from her eyes.
"You're being —!" She held back a wail. "You're being too strong," her brain had just realised what had happened. She realised he had saved her from the truck.
"You're being a baby, Jess." He chuckled as he embraced her. He pulled her out from the embrace after her crying had subsided a bit.
He wiped off her tears. He was filling very fulfilled and so delighted. He had beat his dream and played a different role.
"I'm fine for reals!" He gestured for her to know he was actually fine. She didn't believe him and she was just about to ask a question.
"Now how to we get to church on one bike?" He asked her as he turned to go get his bicycle.
The church wasn't far from them right now though. About two minutes away from this distance. If they start walking now they'd get there quickly. He lifted his wrist to check what the time was but his wristwatch was broken from the crash. He pulled out his phone to check the time but it's screen was broken.
"F*ckk! Could you please check the time on your phone?" He turned to ask Jessica and continued his steps to get his bicycle as he puts his phone back into his pocket.
"We can still make it, if we get going now. But you... you're not in a good shape." She worriedly said to him. He smirked as he got on his bicycle and pedalled to where she was. His bicycle was in a good shape. He only flung it away to get down earlier.
"Then we should start going if we can still make it." He ignored her question as he braked in front of her. He pulled off a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it it her so she could clean off the little blood stain she got on her hand from hugging her.
They got walking to get to church before it was over.
Come to think of it, Simon remember the truck came frontwards towards him so therefore he should have been able to get a sight of who the driver was. He remembered he was more focused on saving Jessica though he also saw through the windscreen of the truck. No one was there. His eyes quickly widen in realisation that no one was on the driver's seat or passenger's seat either. That can't be true. It was very vivid in his memory. No one was there. Does it mean that the truck was driving itself? It can't be so. How and what would a 16-wheeler truck be doing in there town on a Sunday? A lot of questions sprung up in his head. No one was going to believe this if he said it to anyone not even Jessica! He definitely grew curious about this and wanted to investigate more on this occurrence. He thought on where to start with.
Fr. Nicholas was the right person to tell this but sadly he'd be leaving the town today. He definitely had to tell him even if it meant leaving the town on a later day to speak with him.
His family and Fr. Nicholas had restricted him from leaving the town for no reason but this was very dire. If it comes to leaving the town, he's definitely going to do that.