they're both panted out of the forest, with sweat profusely pouring down their bodies, Nicholas decided to lean himself up in Richard's Jeep which was parked next to this fork.
Nicholas still trying to catch his breath, because earlier when he was running, it felt like he wasn't catching his breath well, so now he feels like he's out of the air and can barely breathe.
Nicholas tried to remember what the face of the mysterious man in the forest looked like because when he tried to see the man clearly, he couldn't do it. Whereas before he could use his eyes to see clearly when he saw Emily's presence.
"Who was that?" Nicholas said turning to where Richard was, he was sprawling on the street, on his back, he was rolling around trying to get a bit of air to get into his body.
Nicholas wants to laugh right now when he sees Richard doing this. But he feels too bad if he does. So Nicholas decided to wait for his best friend to finish to catch his breath.
Nicholas stood up, decided to walk closer to where Richard was.
But when Nicholas just got up, he felt as if he saw someone's figure at the back of this Jeep.
Nicholas froze for a moment, making sure that what he saw was something wrong. Maybe his eyes are currently unable to compromise because he feels that the figure he saw just now, was a man in the forest earlier.
"It's impossible, what's more, he can run that fast!" Nicholas talked to himself, chuckling a little. Laughing at himself is something natural for him.
"Nicholas,"
Nicholas immediately looked in the direction where Richard was, the moment Richard called his name.
But when Nicholas looked at him, Richard looked so confused and scared, when he looked at Nicholas. Nicholas gave him an expression with wide eyes and raised his eyebrows, indicating that he was asking 'what's wrong?'
But Richard didn't answer what Nicholas asked, Richard just pointed at him, glancing and raising his eyebrows.
"Huh? What do you mean..."
Nicholas stopped his sentence when he was about to ask him Because Nicholas just realized that what he was pointing at was not him. Nicholas quickly turned to look behind him, to make sure what Richard meant.
And sure enough, his eyes went wide, when Nicholas saw the figure of the man he saw in the woods earlier, now beside Richard's Jeep.
My lips trembled by themselves when I was about to ask something, but seemed to be stuck and couldn't utter a single word.
Without realizing it, I immediately stepped back a few steps. and now I was right next to where Richard was standing shaking. Nicholas looks so scared when he saw the man.
But strangely, the man wearing a brown shirt was smiling broadly at both of them, and of course, this made Richard and Nicholas surprised for a moment.
Soon he immediately walked closer to where Richard and Nicholas were.
And Nicholas can see the look on his face perfectly now, he who has short black hair, with gray eyes, sharp eyes, smooth white skin, sharp nose, and his face has a wound on his temple, like a scratch. but scarred. His stature was probably twenty years and over.
And he who smiled at them both was now right in front of them.
"What are you doing here?" He asked in a deep voice, which made both of them gulp at the same time.
"Ahh, schoolwork," Richard answered spontaneously.
"Yeah, schoolwork," Nicholas chimed in to make the boy believe what they said.
"Shit! He's Roran, Roran Rose!"
Richard whispered something to Nicholas, but he had no idea what Richard meant. So he decided to just keep quiet.
But before long, Richard pinched Nicholas's stomach, Nicholas looked at him and he gave a gesture that Nicholas didn't know what he meant.
"Huh, what?" Nicholas asked him directly, rather than complicated.
"Haha, it's okay, I think it's time for us to go back to our lessons, so we want to say goodbye first, bye. Until we meet again. Ahh, I guess not" Richard stammered. Then dragged Nicholas by force to get into his Jeep.
While he was just silent, and Nicholas's eyes with the man did not leave at all, he just kept quiet and smiled widely at Nicholas. It was as if the look in his eyes had given me meaning and a story of its own.
"Shhh, Nicholas! Hush hey, Come on!"
Nicholas immediately turned his face away from him and quickly got into Richard's Jeep. And Richard quickly stepped on the gas and left the place.
Nicholas saw him, and he looked at Nicholas too, when Richard's Jeep turned to turn in the opposite direction, suddenly the man wasn't where he was standing.
Nicholas tried to search for it, his eyes scanned the entire area, but he failed to find it.
"You're crazy! I swear! It's a good thing we can still survive from him!" Richard said in a tone that was so panicked, he said the sentence while pounding the handlebar then the steering wheel he was driving.
"Hey, what's wrong? What exactly did you say just now? I don't understand!" Nicholas asked Richard to confirm what he meant.
Both of them have now moved away from the protected forest area.
"Seriously!!! You don't know who he is?" Richard asked Nicholas with an expression of disbelief.
Nicholas just shook his head in response to what he just asked. Because Nicholas doesn't know who the man is, or maybe he just missed the news so he doesn't know who the man who was talking to both of them was.
"He's Roran Rose! Once a fugitive, for having killed his girlfriend, viciously! But until now he has never been jailed by the Police." Richard explained.
"I saw a picture of his face on the morning news, four months ago, and I can still remember it today."
Nicholas immediately looked at Richard with a surprising look at what he had just said.
"Huh, seriously?" Nicholas asked Richard not believing him when he saw that the man was a man who couldn't possibly do that.
"Hey, remember! My uncle is a cop! So I know whatever's going on in Cleveland!" Richard said with a focus on driving.
Nicholas was just speechless when he said that because what he said was true too.
"Did your uncle catch him?" Nicholas asked curiously.
But when Nicholas saw him, he just shook his head and hit the steering wheel many times.
It was as if there was a self-hatred that welled up inside of him when he spoke about this man.
"He's so cunning because he can get proof that he's innocent, I don't know how he got it, but I think he's still the killer!" Richard said in a very irritated tone, as he spoke the sentence.
"Ah, I see, hmmm," Nicholas answered with this sentence because he was confused about what topic to make with his best friend.
There are so many things Nicholas wants to ask him, but because it seems that when he talks about this guy, Richard always looks so emotional towards him. So Nicholas decided not to talk about that guy named Roran.
"Ahh, yeah how's the wound on your arm?"
Nicholas turned to him when suddenly Richard asked him about the wound on his left arm.
"Hmmm, I think I'm feeling better," Nicholas replied while trying to press on the wound on his left arm. But strangely he didn't feel anything.
"I can't, I have to check it myself, I know you are a child who can't take care of yourself. So I have to make sure if you are okay, you don't get the virus from that beast." Richard said in an understanding tone to Nicholas.
That's right, Nicholas that kind of person, so he can't avoid it.
"Haha, okay" Nicholas replied with a chuckle.
Finally, they're both stopped at a gas station, then Richard took first aid which was on the dashboard of his car.
"Here, I'll check!" Richard said while cheering Nicholas's left hand.
Nicholas just did what he did, and let him treat Nicholas's wound.
Richard slowly removed the bandage which was covered in dried blood.
"What is it?" Nicholas asked him as he remained silent, after removing Nicholas's bandage.
"Where's the wound you mean?" Richard asked Nicholas in a confused tone.