Instinct can sometimes be a scary thing, especially for people with anxiety disorder. But Tyrone's anxiety was only for a few things he considered absolute; pain and loss mainly.
So while some would feel nervous at being followed, he didn't. Driving at a slightly faster pace to make sure he wasn't being dramatic, he slowly began to analyze the situation.
Powerful as his analytical abilities were, Tyrone had developed a strong distrust for himself. Oftentimes in the past, when he sensed people's ingenuity and confronted them, they always found a way to turn it on him. Like when he told his Mom that she hurt him by never listening to him, and she'd turn it on him by saying he was being disrespectful or going on a tangent about how she was the worst mother in the world.
Somehow, almost entirely founded on his interactions with his mother, Tyrone had developed a twisted duality of thought, morality, principles, and personality.
And now his mind existed in two states.
"I'm not important to follow, it's all in my head"
"They're too close"
Unfortunately for Tyrone, no one would tell the car behind him that he wasn't important enough. Whatever internal conflict he was dealing with was not powerful enough to influence the world. Reality was fond of turning the wisdom of saints into foolery. Like the one who said the simplest answer is often the correct one. Reality had time and time again proven to Tyrone how untrue that was... but who was he to challenge the wisdom of great men before whom he had no right to kneel?
It was that same self-doubt ingrained deep within him when everyone forced him to believe his senses were wrong and all fault was his.
"Drive faster," the girl beside him ordered, most of her casualness from the day before gone; not that he noticed or cared.
Tyrone still didn't care about her even now. Did it cross his mind that the car was following her and not him? Yes!
Ultimately, that didn't matter; he didn't know what they wanted, but if there was anything Tyrone had a knack for, it would be surviving, and right now... speed did not mean survival.
"Go faster you idiot!" the girl burst out when she saw Tyrone had ignored her and kept the pace. Her panicked gaze alternated between the road ahead and the rear mirror.
Unwilling to engage and mostly antisocial, there were times when Tyrone found a burst of courage, nonchalance, and anger that made his blood boil at the chance to reveal his true nature.
The girl had insulted him, an insult he'd heard many times before on this job, but this time, he was unable to find amusement in her foolishness.
"If you want to die, then I'll stop and you can get out," he replied coldly, his tone mostly even save for the faint vibration from his excitement.
His hands on the wheels were shaking, his heart beating loudly in his ears, his eyes wide as he noticed a gun aimed at him from the car behind. Swerving quickly into incoming traffic, Tyrone spun the car around and immediately set for the other direction. Taking a few more turns, he stopped the car in an alleyway and got out.
"Get out and follow me," he ordered the confused girl, who was still trying to regain her bearings from his sudden change of pace.
Without waiting for her, he hurried into a restaurant and headed immediately for the rest room where he took off his jacket and produced a comb from his trouser pocket to comb his hair. Just as he finished, the girl entered, and he handed the jacket to her. It was a long grey-colored jacket he loved wearing over his shirt on most days. It was comfy; was his only reason.
"What are you doing?" the girl asked quickly, confused and defiant.
Tyrone paused for a moment and turned to face her.
"I am a simple person and I don't tolerate BS. You have gotten me involved in something simply by getting into my car. Now, I don't care about your intent, as it is ultimately irrelevant, but I need clarity; I value that above all else. No matter how ridiculous, no matter how unwise, I don't care about anything other than clear, precise, truth. So what's going on?"
Tyrone was often long-winded, and he knew it, but he always felt it was necessary to drive home his point. However, while he didn't mind others being long-winded too, he cared a lot perhaps to the point of obsession about clarity. He was one of those who would hate a person for lying to protect him.
"I don't know, I swear. Those people came to my shop with a gun and killed my colleague, they stepped out, and I ran away, but one of them saw me," she quickly started to explain.
Tyrone simply stared at her silently when she finished. There was more to this, he knew that. He felt like he had a good grasp of how society worked in this country. And while it was true that gangs often shot and killed people, he always believed things were never as simple as rumors made it seem. True, Tyrone had difficulty understanding those who regarded human life as nothing and had no qualms about ending it on a whim, but this situation was nothing like that.
Those people gave chase. They followed for a while even when she got into the car with him. They had a purpose, and this wasn't a robbery situation because they risked getting caught at every moment but kept following the girl anyway.
While he was in his thoughts, the girl silently watched his deepening frown, and slowly, recognition set in her eyes.
"I know you," she exclaimed, and Tyrone squinted at her, tilting his head sideways in subtle encouragement for her to say more.
"I entered your car yesterday too," she explained, and Tyrone immediately lost interest. He had hundreds of passengers every day, and it was inevitable that people would recognize him, but he liked his head free of irrelevance, so he never cared to note anyone.
"Here's what we will do. I can help you; you'll pay me," he started.
Yes money, he needed money. As for saving her life? He didn't care. He wasn't a saint. He cared and hoped that she lived and he would do his best to help her, money or not, but he had a family relying on him, so he had to be smart.
It was his duality again expressing itself; he didn't care about her life, but he cared if she died.
"How much?" she asked back her eyes hopeful.
"We'll talk about that later. There's a few rules. You will listen to me at all times. No screaming unnecessarily, no complaining, no laziness, no girly bullshit" his eyes were stern as he spat out a bunch of rules. He thought it necessary because...well because of movies and books he'd read. People died due to hesitation. A lot could happen in a second, and right now, he was wasting many seconds.
"Agreed" the girl replied immediately. She could tell that the young man before her had a preconceived notion of her nature as a girl but was trying to build a new image of her as a person. As for how she knew that? There was someone else in her life who acted similarly.
"Good now, phones, watches, hair band everything put them in that bin over there, take my hand, walk slowly, and we'll go out to order food"
Without waiting for a reaction, he walked to the wall and rested his back on it, arms folded in front of him, he closed his eyes and slowly started pounding his head on the wall as he sank into his thoughts.