Problems of an Invisible Girl

Chapter 39

Unfortunately, for them, especially for Nat who went through all the trouble of stealing a new car, the person who rented them the rooms and seemed disinterested in everything that happened, saw them leaving in a different car and few dollars were all it took for the guys who were after them to reveal that information.
Soon enough Nat noticed a car tailing them, and he had an idea of what might have happened. It made him furious that his carefully-thought-through plan was failing, that he had to steal a car for nothing.

"We are being followed." He said to the others.
The quiet that filled the relatively spacious car until that moment turned into hushed murmurs of fear and despair.

"Why can't adults ever be adults and tell us what to do?" Nat thought to himself as he focused all of his attention on getting away from the car.
That was when the car chase started.

For most of the people in the car, it was their first car chase, and they were terrified, but they were lucky that the only person who had been in a car chase before was the one driving the car.
Nat's dark past came in handy because anyone else in his place would have panicked, but not him. He had been in car chases before, and he was pretty sure he could evade their pursuers.

Rina and her parents just grabbed on to anything that they could reach and held on for dear life while Serena, who was in the front seat seemed much less perturbed by the cars breakneck speed.
Serena could see that although Nat had done something similar many times before he was nervous, after all, this time other people's lives were at stake.

"You got this!" Serena said in encouragement.
Her voice was full of confidence and trust in his ability.
It was probably because she was the only one in that car who was aware of his unique set of skills and what he was capable of doing.

Her words meant a lot to him since she was the one person in his life who was always there for him and who had utter belief in him and his abilities.
She was there to pick him up when he felt guilty about stealing although he had to do it to survive.
For as long as they knew each other she never believed he was a criminal, but a great guy who had to do some bad things.

What Nat wanted more than anything else was to prove to her, to himself, that he could be that great guy she saw.
This was his chance to do so.

Gritting his teeth he put his doubts aside and focused all of his attention on driving and thinking up a new plan of action.
It was all up to him.
Jack was weak and barely conscious and the others were too shaken and unfamiliar with the situation to be of any help.

After chasing them for a while down the deserted roads they had to go through to reach civilization, the guys seemed to lose patience, and they started shooting at them.
Their boss wasn't with them and in their anger they seemed to have forgotten that they needed some occupants of the car alive.

However, having anticipated that, Nat wasn't driving straight but was moving quickly from one side of the road to the other so the ruffians' bullets didn't manage to hit them.
That was one factor and the other one was that it was obvious the guys had never fired their weapons from a moving vehicle, so they were not as precise as they would have been otherwise.
Still, everyone except Nat dived under their seats as a precaution.

One they approached the city area, their pursuers were reasonable enough to stop shooting at them for fear of the police, but they still kept following close behind.
The car Nat chose to steal wasn't the fastest one since he didn't anticipate the car chase so there wasn't much he could do but try his best not to let them catch up.
Still, going through the city Nat was able to evade the traffic much more efficiently which gave them a head start but there was still not much that Nat could do.

After driving for some time and starting to get exhausted, Nat saw a multilevel car park and got a crazy idea, but the crazy idea sounded better to him than no idea at all.
The others in the car were eerily quiet but that actually helped him to better concentrate.
He didn't feel like he was under any pressure and that made it easier somehow.

Nat quickly turned into the multilevel car park and parked the car in the most crowded part of the middle level while telling everyone to turn invisible.
Since he and Jack couldn't do the same, they lied down on the floor of the car while others turned invisible and followed what their pursuers were doing.
It was a move he remembered from the movies, but he had a feeling that the idiots who were chasing them wouldn't figure it out.

If their boss were with them then he would have probably known what Nat was doing but as it was he was pretty sure that the guys who were shooting at people they were supposed to catch alive wouldn't even think that one of the cars parked among so many other cars contained their targets.

So it was no surprise to him when the car that was pursuing them passed right next to them without spotting them, but still he sighed a breath of relief because he wasn't completely sure it would work.

Since he was the only one with any plans, he thought it better not to share his doubts with anyone although he was pretty sure that Serena knew since she was always able to read his thoughts from his facial expressions.
Still, she said nothing, and he was very grateful for that.

They waited for quite some time for the other car to leave the car park and after a few hours, they did, thinking that the people they were chasing took the back exit and went in hot pursuit.

After waiting for a while longer, to make sure that the idiots weren't actually clever and were waiting them out, Serena went out of the car invisible as she was to scout the area.
Having seen no trace of the bad guys, they could finally relax and try to find another car to steal which with Nat's set of skills wouldn't be a big challenge.

He made sure to choose a fast car that was still spacious enough for all of them which was easy since there were many cars to choose from and the cameras weren't working which was often the case in the car parks he had stolen from in the past.
Soon enough they were comfortably settled in the new car, and they set off to grandma's house.

"How are you so good at stealing and car chases? Are you a criminal? Did my poor daughter spend all this time having a criminal as her friend?" Jack asked.
As weak as he was, anger still managed to rear its ugly face.

"Jack!" Serena yelled.
"That is none of your business! Did you fail to see that he is the guy who saved your life!? Repeatedly!" Serena said.

"It's okay Rena, they deserve to know about my past," Nat said.
He seemed calm, but it was obvious to Serena that he was hurt by Jack's mistrust.

"Are you sure you are okay talking about it?" Serena asked.
She was worried about Nat since she knew how much hurt there was in his past and how much he suffered.

"Yes, I am sure. I'll be fine." He said.

Although it was obvious that he would not be fine, that talking about the past would open a lot of old wounds Serena didn't say anything else because she knew that once Nat had made up his mind it wasn't possible to convince him to change his mind.

They kept on driving towards what they hoped was safety as Nat told the tale of his life.