AllFreeNovel Stories worth discovering

Gridlocked

Page 99

by Chelsea Wilde

Five lights.

The storm in my chest stilled.

There was nothing left to say.

Only the drive remained.

The final light blinked on.

I took one last breath.

And let the monster out.

The lights vanished.

I launched.

Perfect clutch bite. Minimal wheelspin. I surged forward with violent grace, every muscle tuned to the machine around me. Behind me, engines screamed and tyres smoked, but they were just noise.

I was already gone.

Turn One came at 290kph. I braked later than was wise, later than was sane—right on the bleeding edge of adhesion. The rear twitched, but I caught it, threaded the needle. The city flashed by in chrome streaks and neon blurs. Seoul’s brand-new street circuit was tight, technical, brutal.

Good. Let it fight me.

I didn’t lift.

By lap three I’d broken DRS range.

By lap five, I was three seconds clear.

Mac was in my ear again. “Gap to Rivers: 3.2. Your pace is surgical. Keep this rhythm.”

Surgical? No. I wasn’t slicing.

I was carving my legacy into the tarmac.

Every corner was a test, and I passed them all. Brake late. Downshift crisp. Ride the kerbs. Use the wall to judge the inch-perfect line. Others flinched at barriers. I kissed them.

Let the track come for me. Let the world think I was broken. Let them whisper that Obsidian made me.

Today I was the blade, not the hand wielding it.

And I would cut.

Mid-race pit stop—tight, clean, efficient. Back out in clear air.

“Everything’s green. You’re untouchable right now.” Mac said, his voice calm and collected.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I was too far inside the rhythm. Every cell in my body vibrated to the song of the car—engine pitch, tyre feedback, g-forces like a drumbeat in my skull. This was more than control. This was flow.

This was why I did it.

Not for the podiums. Not for the headlines.

Not even for the titles.

For this feeling.