Novel & Cerita Good Hope Road

I was so insistent on holding onto what has never belonged to me. When I came around once more, the narrow road behind me was already filled with traffic. I had no time to lose. I took a deep breath and knelt in front of Francis. "Francis, it's all my fault, but my father is innocent. Can you please clear a path and send him to the hospital?" I prostrated myself and bowed to the ground in front of him, baffling the other surrounding drivers. "My father has lost consciousness due to a cerebral hemorrhage. His life is at stake! I'm begging you, only you have such powers!"

“Still not great.” I came further into the room. “There’s something I need to tell you.” She waited. “My guys found a road today. It’s in the southern boundary, past the ridge. Hasn’t been used in at least five years. We’re going out tonight to take a look.” Something changed in her face. Not surprise exactly, it was more like recognition. “The road of thorns,” she said. I went still. “What did you just say?” “That’s what it’s called.” She said it simply, like she was telling me the sky was grey. “That’s what people who actually knew it called it. The thorns grow over the markers in the wet season. They come back every year.”

I ask, my voice dropping to a deadly, quiet register. "One last run," he says. His smirk turns feral. "The old ridge road. Just you, me, and the asphalt. You win, and I smash this drive. I let you keep your perfect little life. I lose, and I get the agency contact info. Plus, you walk away from the championship game next week. Let everyone see you crawl." The ridge road. It's a notorious, unlit stretch of highway outside the city limits, full of blind hairpin turns and sheer drops. Two years ago, a kid from a rival school flipped his car there. He never walked again. It's a death trap.

Hope is asking for you. I started the car. Pulled out of the parking lot. Drove through the quiet streets, past the houses with porches and trees, past the part of Miami that felt like it belonged to another time. The sun was setting, the sky turning orange and pink, the kind of sunset that made you believe in beauty even when you weren't sure you believed in anything else. When I got home, Aiden was on the porch with Hope in his arms. She reached for me the moment I got out of the car, her small hands opening and closing, her face lit up with that smile that made everything else disappear.

Impossible security. "She wants us to attack Fort Bragg?" Garrett stared at the message. "That is suicide. That is death sentence. That is—" "That is where she is. That is where we go. That is what she asked us to do." "We cannot attack Fort Bragg! Eight people against military base? We die in thirty seconds!" "Then we die. But we try. Because Hope asked. Because she is family. Because we do not abandon her." Maya was studying satellite images of Fort Bragg. "There might be a way. Not frontal assault. Something else. Something Hope is planning. Look at the base layout. Look at the security patterns. Look at—this."

And Hope—Hope had no idea what was coming. Perfect. **TO BE CONTINUED...** ---

“You’re right. She’s all dressed up. There must be something wrong with her.” They walked faster and did not spare me a second glance. I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. My throat was a mess of clotted blood. But that was fine. I did not need anyone to help me. It only mattered that someone would see me and send me to the emergency room. I saw the sign for the hospital through the rain. In the darkness, it shone like hope. It was just a block away. I dug my finger in the cracks of the pavement, and two of my nails fell out.

Levi bellows out as he pulls on his hair in frustration. "We will find them, Lev, we didn't give up when Savannah or Emily was taken and we won't give up now!" Theo says as he walks towards us looking as hurt and angry as I feel. Levi nods to him but I can see that he is slowly losing all hope. "Alpha Logan, we have found something, it looks like an entrance to some sort of underground tunnel, it may be worth checking out!" Smith's link rings through my head and I feel my heartbeat pick up.

After that, the whole ride went silent. Not long after, the car maneuvered to a high place. This is the place where 99% of the neighbors are known to be more than well off. Most South Koreans would live in an apartment but owners here buy their lot which is very expensive in this country and they also have to build their style of the house. We happen to live in this neighborhood as the lot property was already given as a gift by my father. Marcus' father was then the one to pay for everything else. The car halted at a huge gate. Marcus clicked the controller for us to drive the car inside. He parked the car in its usual place. He took off his seat belt and went out to open the door for me.

He kept the car at a constant speed, not wanting to alert the paparazzi. There were a lot of twists and turns here. Hope grew up in Prismara. She used to come here during her college years. She knew the place like the back of her hand. “Turn right, Buck!” “Left, Buck!” “Make a turn on the third road ahead!” Hope guided Buck. Something thudded at her legs after a sharp turn. “Ouch…” It hurt. “What’s this? It hurts…” Hope focused and saw that it was Maia’s phone!