NIGHTRUN.
Selene lived a double life. She was a highly-trained ex-military assassin turned customer service manager, so she was an unlikely candidate to be one of the most notorious street racers known to Sunbridge, if not the entire country. But that was exactly what she was. She owned the streets, and known only as "Nightrun," and was enveloped in a cloak of mystery, racing only in the cover of dark. Not a soul involved in the sport had even seen her during the day, some even went so far to claim that she was a vampire. Her world depended on this secrecy, and threatened to collapse when someone discovered both of her identities. This could cost her everything that she knew as a wanted fugitive and as a racing legend, but even so, she had no idea that that would not be the greatest problem that she was fated to face.

chapter one; "selene."

Too easy. The woman thought to herself, weaving her way through the small amount of traffic - not paying any heed to their indignant horns as she sped right by. That didn't even last two minutes, she thought with a mixture of disappointment and amusement. They don't even faze me anymore. She almost felt sorry that the police hadn't even tried hard enough to get her. She had always thrived on the action, and it had been ages since the Sunbridge Police Department's helicopter had been deployed. Momentarily, she wondered if maybe they were actually giving up on her.

Pity, because she lived for it.

Selene pulled into her driveway, having long since switched cars and was inside of a good ol' SUV. One would never guess the power of the engine that she had installed, it could run with the best if she decided she wanted to use up all of her gas in one shot. She smirked at the thought as she stepped inside through some heavy wooden doors into her house.

She had won another race this night, it wasn't all that important compared to some races she had done, just a simple circuit around some of Sunbridge's streets. 20 grand is 20 grand, Selene thought wryly as she set the two wads of cash in her safe. She was well off, she supposed, for she had no need for a job for the rest of her life - providing that she managed her funds well. Which she did, having made methodical investments to triple her total worth. However, it would be suspicious for a 20 year old woman to stop working and still live well. Too suspicious. If anything, people may think she sold drugs or some crazy imaginative tale that old ladies in the neighborhood had the annoying habit of doing.

She lived in a nice enough place, not too eye-popping, nor was it any different from any other house around town. This was exactly why she had purchased it, it was in a residential area normally lived in by retirees - not exactly street racer territory. Most houses were almost laughable at their normality. Almost all of the houses here had white picket fences and perfectly cut, green lawns. Even so, she loved the quiet that almost always held the place, and how the road winded this way and that as if it just felt like turning on a whim and just couldn't make up its mind on how it should go. Sure, there were annoying house codes, and pets were frowned upon unless they could be carried in a handbag, and if your car had a speck of rust the whole neighborhood suddenly seemed rather dreary. These were just some of the unspoken laws of this area, which amused Selene if anything, since she really didn't care all that much. Then again, she didn't care about a whole lot of things that other people cared about - not that she didn't care about anything, necessarily, she did care about a lot of things, actually. It just happened that she was a wanted criminal, and one slip could cost her everything.

To prevent that, she didn't keep her racing cars here, of course. Most had flames painted on the side, or intricate yet striking patterns that flowed along the sides. They would stand out like a sore thumb in this neighborhood. Her favorite color on a car was black, but she had a white mustang and dark tan BMW in a garage across town. However, her primary 'vehicle' was a black Porsche 911 Carrera, with dark orange flames outlined in a vibrant red. She had worked the car extremely well, it was a slingshot around corners and was equipped with Nitrous to increase efficiency. In short, that Porsche was her baby. Plain and simple. Selene smiled fondly at the thought, before closing the safe firmly, listening as several locks clicked into place.

She flipped the television on, smirking as the police station had run a short message on the local news channels asking the public for 'help' in locating the man who called himself "Nightrun." She loved how they automatically assumed Nightrun was male, just because cars seemed like a 'masculine' sport. Yeah, right. There were many women involved with the racing she was involved in, never mind that it was considered illegal. If you do it right, no one gets hurt. She was proud to know that damage had only been done on inanimate objects, never on anyone living. Unless it was a cop, as far as she was concerned they didn't count as living. She was pretty sure none of the immobilized police vehicles had resulted in injury, but if they had, she wasn't too concerned. Serves them right for falling for any tricks she used on them, Selene decided.

She glanced at the clock. 4:55 AM. Well, she only had to wake up in an hour and five minutes. Stifling a yawn, she trudged towards her room, changed into some comfy clothes, and slipped into bed, sleep claiming her a heart beat before her head even touched the pillows.

»»»x«««

Silencing her alarm clock with a well-aimed slam, Selene rose. Pushing the royal blue covers back into a semi-neat position, she walked calmly into her master bathroom. After stripping and stepping in, she negotiated with the shower head until it was warm enough. She inspected her ribs for a few moments, her hands running over the faint scars before shaking her head. Never again, would she be so weak as she had been those short few years ago. She gave up her entire life career in the military because of it. She missed feeling like she had a purpose, like she was needed, God, she felt so useless now. One scar in particular seemed a bit darker than the others, it had been stubborn and hadn't healed right for a while, but it was finally starting to fade. Sighing, she scrubbed her hair furiously, irritated with the way her thoughts had traveled to that subject. Thinking about her plans for the day, and then for the night, she managed to think about something less.. She didn't have the right word for it, so she didn't dwell on it for much longer.

Refreshed from her shower, she changed, applied a bit of makeup and straightened her dark brown hair with a flat iron. She was attractive enough, she supposed, but for the most part she didn't worry too much about her looks. As long as she was presentable, she didn't care. Denim jeans, a white tank, and a black hoodie made up her normal attire. Nothing too dressy, but not so comfortable that she appeared lazy. The jeans had a flare at the bottom, and her hoodies were never so huge that they made her look frumpy; in fact, she rather liked the sweater she was currently wearing. It fit just in the right places and the long sleeves were never in the way.

Adding a few finishing touches to her mascara, Selene stepped out and into her beige SUV. Again, it was the last thing someone would expect of a street racer, which was precisely the reason she had chosen it at the dealership. It was a few years old, had a respectable amount of miles on it, not sparkling clean, had a couple hard-to-see scratches. It was normal, and blended in to its surroundings perfectly. Flipping on the stereo, and - out of habit - tuned in to the police's radio along with it. The music would pause when a transmission came in within a certain distance to form a radius around her - this way, she was always aware of what the cops were up to. It may have been a bit unnecessary, as she was confident that they would never guess she was the infamous Nightrun - they thought Night was a man for Heaven's sake, but she couldn't take too many chances when it came to this.

Pulling up the the glass-paneled office building she worked at, she grinned at the inevitable protest her boss would give at her attire. He had an issue with jeans, so she wore jeans every day, and - in return - he chewed her out about it. Every day. It had become somewhat of a ritual for them.

"SELENE! What have I told you about those damned jeans!" A rather ruffled looking businessman shouted as she entered the doors. He looked around forty years old, and his voice was strained as though he were in physical pain because of her willful disobedience. She never worried about him doing any action about it - like firing her - simply because she knew she did her job (handling angry customers) better than anyone around. She could handle pissed off clients pretty darn well, if she wanted to toot her own horn.

"Good morning to you too." She chirped, beaming at him as she gracefully stepped into the elevator, waving good bye to him for good measure.

He had seen her around often, the man thought, seeing as he often had to go here for business deals. His ears had practically perked up as he heard her as she brushed off the secretary's attempts to chat by saying she was pretty tired and wanted to go home. Now, before you get any odd ideas, he wasn't a stalker or anything, only observant, but he had seen the direction of which she came from in her tan Ford Explorer on the road that morning - and as he watched the SUV speed off, it had gone the completely opposite direction. Curious indeed.

Selene leaned against the headrest of her seat as she waited for the iron gates to open. Damn it, Nigel, can't you see I'm running late? She thought irritably as if the man who monitored the cameras around the perimeter could actually hear her thoughts. A couple curses later, she was rewarded with the painfully slow opening of the gates as they creaked and moved out of the way. The second there was enough room for the gates not to scratch her vehicle, she floored the SUV, and while it was not as fast as her real cars, it made her feel a bit better as she slammed on the brakes and stalked into the garage, tossing the keys onto the workbench nearby.

"You're rather late." A rather amused voice chirped from the back doorway of the spacious garage. Although, spacious could be an understatement. It was huge, in reality, it could probably fit 60 cars if they were parked correctly. Concrete floors with the occasional splatter of dried paint gave it a bit of a "stereotypical abandoned warehouse" feel, if you wanted to come up with a term to describe it. The walls had various posters advertising different brands of car parts, and a few spots had spray painted graffiti-style designs. Selene's guess was that some of the graphic designers get bored every once and a while. It seemed rather empty, as about 20 vehicles were parked inside currently - but Selene had no doubt that there were many more out driving the streets at this very moment. A twinge of longing gnawed at her, since she would like to be prowling her streets right this moment, too.

"Gee, what gave you that idea, Lance?" She snapped, and he only laughed, used to her quick temper from the years they had known each other. He was fairly handsome, she could admit, albeit reluctantly. It may have been due to the fact she had broken that pretty nose of his several times in the past - let's just say he now knew better then to even try and make a move on her. Now they had relaxed into a fairly loose alliance, sometimes going and having a drink every so often or debating on something car-related, plus he had some connections that had landed her some blueprints of the entire city. They had definitely helped when she needed to make a quick getaway when a pursuit got too hot - even Selene knew better than to press her luck in certain situations.

After making sure the gas tank was full and that the car was in prime condition, Selene revved the engine of her Mitsubishi Lancer a few times. While she didn't like it as much as her Porsche, it would do just fine for the race she had been challenged to tonight. She gave a wave of farewell to the blond man who was ushering her to leave and sped off, relishing the feel of speed at long last. (If you could count 16 hours as a long time)

Selene became Nightrun again, weaving her way through traffic - not even caring enough to check and see that it was a red light - and cruising at 70 miles per hour - only about 40 MPH over the speed limit, yeah? This one's plate was NGHTRUN, a play on her name as she had used NYTRUN on her porsche. There was NIGHTRN for her Mustang GT as well, but did it really matter? It's not like these plates were legal - ha, that would be laughable if they were, the cops would easily be able to track her down if she used state-issued plates.

Touching on the brake enough to cause the Mitsubishi to slide perfectly to a position alongside the bright red Dodge Viper already parked at the designated starting place they had agreed on. At the signal, she floored the car and took off in a flash. The Viper might as well have been standing still, she thought wryly. However, she didn't let her confidence get the better of her, and focused on avoiding traffic and sliding around on the corners without losing any of her speed. This race was hers for the taking.

A/N: Chapter One is done. Hope you enjoy, not too much has happened yet but I want to use the first couple chapters to introduce Selene. I gave you a teasing glimpse of a character who will have a major part in the story, but you will have to wait a few chapters to get a good look. ;)

Please review!

»Constructive criticism is always welcome, I am constantly trying to improve each chapter and even though I fix as many errors as I can find - I am only human. If you see any typos or errors, please let me know! Also, if you see anything that you think should be changed (inconsistencies, a scene that makes no sense whatsoever etc) I would love to hear your input! I can not guarantee that I will remove half a chapter just because you thought it was lame, but if I reread something and realize "I posted THAT?" I'll definitely change it! Thanks.
--Magischer«

last edited: may 20th 2008