Tabitha's POV
Rather than the fear brought by the car losing control, it was more accurate to say that I was facing the root of my subconscious fears.
As the downhill began, the driver struggled to keep the steering steady, but the speed instantly shot up.
The rushing wind roared in my ears, so loud that it drowned out the sound of my own heartbeat.
Scene after scene flashed through my mind, a car racing through a rainy night, the thunderous roar of thunder and lightning in the sky, and the heart-wrenching screams of a woman.
"Ah!" I suddenly clutched my head, as a nearly unbearable pain seemed to tear through it.
"Tabitha! Don't be afraid. I am here." Derek held me tightly.
I unconsciously grabbed Derek's collar, my eyes tightly shut as I shouted, "I'm scared, Derek. I'm scared!"
I'm not afraid of death. It seemed I was afraid of something even more terrifying than dying.
But I didn't understand. If I wasn't even afraid of death, what else could I possibly be afraid of?
With the gale rushing in like that, I felt like my soul was about to be flung out of me.
There was a moment when a thought flashed through my mind. It would be quite good to just die like this!
I was startled by my own reaction. I was living just fine, so why on earth would I want to die?
The speedometer was nudging two hundred miles per hour, and Derek wrapped his arms around me, his voice steady and patient as he tried to soothe my nerves. "Don't be afraid."
I felt like the truth was just within my arm's reach, but I was stuck there. I couldn't remember exactly what happened.
The driver looked serious and said, "Hold on tight. We still have about ten kilometers until we reach the isolation buffer."
Usually, the road didn't seem that long, but right now every second was a torment, and I was just praying nothing else went wrong at that moment.
Whenever an oncoming vehicle crossed the line and drove at such a high speed, the consequences were unimaginable.
Fortunately, Derek managed to keep things under control. There weren't many cars coming our way, and we made it safely onto the isolation buffer prepared by the traffic police without any incidents.
"Get ready. We are about to enter the isolation buffer."
From beginning to end, the driver displayed extremely strong mental resilience, not freaking out even a little bit.
The car slowly came to a stop after it had traveled nearly a hundred meters.
At the moment of coming to a stop, I didn't feel weak in the knees, but rather my stomach stopped hurting from nervousness.
"Are you okay?" Derek immediately showed concern about my emotions.
I shook my head. "I'm fine. Andrea, are you okay?"
Andrea, sitting in the front passenger seat, took off her seatbelt with a calm expression on her face, as if she had just returned from an outing.
It seemed like we hadn't heard a peep out of her from start to finish.
"What's so terrifying about death? I'm someone who's always on death's doorstep," she said nonchalantly. Even as she stepped out of the car, she maintained her calm and composed demeanor.
My head was still pounding from the lingering pain when Derek helped me out of the car.
Gazing at the distant azure sea, I furrowed my brow and began to carefully reminisce.
What important thing did I forget exactly?
It was right in front of me, but I couldn't figure it out.
"Hiss." I covered my head and slowly crouched down.
Derek wrapped his arms around me from behind and whispered, "Tabitha, don't push yourself to remember what you can't. It'll be tough on you."
"But... what exactly did I forget?"
Derek soothed my restless emotions. "It's all in the past now. What matters is the future and the present. Don't you want to know who did all of this?"
I slowly lifted my head and met Derek's gaze.
"What happened today wasn't just an accident," Derek said, his voice taking on a serious tone. "It was a deliberate action by someone."