05 - What now? (Daniel)

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Daniel held the steering wheel so hard he was surprised it didn't break

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Daniel held the steering wheel so hard he was surprised it didn't break. The moment the van's wheels hit the asphalt of the road, his world spun, and therefore, so did Thomas and Mikaela's. He yelled, unceremoniously, as he tried to regain control of the vehicle.

Don't step on the brake!

That was the first thought that came to mind. Daniel remembered very well the classes he had taken at his father's side before moving to Clarence. Peter loved teaching the same lesson at least ten times, or twenty if given the chance, and for the first time in his life Daniel appreciated the gesture. Today, that precaution was one of the few good things he attributed to the man who had thrown him out of the house.

Controlling his panic, Daniel began to slow down. The van skidded some more in the snow before it stopped, narrowly missing a tree. Taking a deep breath, the rocker thanked his luck.

"I thought you said you could drive!" Thomas complained, after composing himself. The blonde was whiter than usual.

"I said I got my permit, in case you didn't know, there's a huge difference between that and an actual license." He replied, irritated. "I've never driven alone even in a beautiful and sunny day. Try doing that in a blizzard, being chased by monstrous snowmen!"

"Speaking of them, maybe we should discuss traffic laws when we're safe. All on board?" Mikaela pointed behind her, where Daniel could see two snowmen heading towards them.

Carefully accelerating, he put the van back on the road and headed toward the center of town. Only after a few minutes, he found the courage to look in the rearview mirror, and smiled when saw that there wasn't any monsters on his tail.

From the park to the city, it was about a fifteen minutes journey, but the slippery track and the fear he felt of accelerating too much and ending up crashing the car made Daniel sure that it would take almost twice as long to reach his destination.

"Just checking, do you have any idea what we're going to do next?" he asked, not just to find out what his colleagues thought, but because talking helped him to remain calm.

"Let's go straight to the police." Thomas responded immediately.

Daniel glanced at the boy through the rearview mirror rising an eyebrow.

"Nice! And let's say we do that, what are we going to tell?"

"That there are people being dragged into the forest by monsters, that's what! The police need..."

The blonde stopped talking, as if he had just realized the absurdity of the situation.

"Daniel is right." Mikaela said, and he started to like her a lot at that moment. "They won't believe us, and who can blame them?"

"So we lie." Thomas insisted. "Can we just say there's some fighting getting out of hand and..."

"And in that case, my..." Daniel found himself almost saying 'Uncle' but decided the situation required a little more formality. "The sheriff will go there without any proper backup. What do you think he's going to do against a bunch of snow monsters? Not to mention the evil Elsa, the wind girl and the big bad wolf."

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