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Do I Regret It?

Chapter 6

“I know this is a dumb question but, should I notify law enforcement?" the AI asked through Conner's earbuds.

Conner scoffed as a few snowflakes lazily drifted from the sky and landed on his face, melting almost instantly.. “The first part of your sentence answered the second part."

“It didn't hurt to confirm what I was already pretty positive about," the AI replied, its tone almost inquisitive.

Conner rolled his eyes before getting to his feet, taking in a deep breath of the late fall air. He turned his head to look at Ryjin's body, and that was when the gravity of the situation finally dawned on him. “Oh boy…" Conner sighed, scratching the back of his neck. His breath formed small clouds in the cool air. He was obviously going to have to hide the body, but the thought of his family's reaction made his stomach churn.

Walking over to Ryjin's body, he holstered his revolver before retrieving the dragon's phone and began searching through it. The cold metal felt foreign in his gloved hand. A text conversation with a group chat of him and his friends made Conner's stomach twist into a knot. “This sick fuck was actually planning on raping her…." He stared at the dragon's phone for a long while as the snowfall began to intensify, covering Ryjin's lifeless form with a thin, white shroud. Thoughts began to swirl around in his mind, what would have happened had he not gotten home when he did? What would Ryjin have done had he not intervened in the hall outside the gym around two months ago?

Seeing Ryjin's lifeless corpse begin to vanish under the blanket of snow made Conner feel a strange mix of relief and dread. No more harm from him would come to Daniella, but now he had to worry about hiding the body and tampering with Ryjin's phone to wipe location records up to a certain point away from home before dropping the phone and some of his belongings at a far away spot.

“Computer, can you tap into Ryjin's phone and wipe the location data up until maybe an hour or two before now and make it ping from wherever I decide to dump it at?" Conner said coldly as he turned and picked up his rifle from the grass and shook the snow off.

“You really are going all out in hiding this?" the AI asked, it was having trouble reading how Conner felt about taking a life. “No guilt at all?"

“I'm not sure yet…" Conner grunted as he slung his rifle over his back and grabbed Ryjin by the tail, dragging him deeper into the property. He obviously knew from flashes of memory that in past lives he had quite the kill count, possibly in the thousands, but each life for an Elemental started out as a new experience until they reached around twenty five. Conner knew he was absolutely justified with what he did.

“Maybe I could be of help to ease your racing mind?" the AI said calmly.

“Sure," Conner grunted as he pushed through reeds at the edge of the thick marsh he was entering.

“Didn't you discover from poking around in the school's network that Ryjin has two sexual assault charges against him and five people have a restraining order against him?"

“Yes, I also discovered that Ryjin was so stupid that he had to be held back not once, but twice." Conner chuckled, “He was a legal adult harassing and threatening to fuck a fifteen year old…" he sighed.

“The Justice System clearly failed this young drake and his victims… you have done a service by removing this filth from the face of the Earth. Don't beat yourself up over this!" the AI said sternly.

After a few minutes, Conner had dragged Ryjin's body through the thick marsh on his parents property to a fairly deep cave he and Daniella had found years ago as young children.

Crawling his way back out of the cave, Conner let out a long sigh while looking down at Ryjin's bloody and tattered harness and phone in his hand. He made his way back to his parents house and got into his truck, leaving the garage in his truck with only the electric engine on and lights off. The AI had pinged a good spot to drop Ryjin's belongings.

…

“Those jagged rocks came in really handy," Conner chuckled as he pitched Ryjin's stuff out his window as he flew by a location the AI had marked as a good dump spot for Ryjin's phone to send out its location one last time.

“It definitely looks like his harness was torn off by a large animal," the AI stated. “The gloves also helped in hiding your fingerprints…. You still obviously need to clean yourself up," it added with a chuckle.

“That's an understatement!" Conner chuckled as he pushed the accelerator down a little further, the electric engine responding by whining a little louder and the front of the truck raising higher.

As he silently tore down the back roads over a dozen kilometers away from home, he dreaded the fallout that would occur if police found out what he did. Conner knew without a doubt they would never be able to find him if he needed to go into hiding…. His most recent project he was working on could literally change the course of history as he knew it. He just feared what the powers that be in the government would do to his family.

…

Conner let out a long sigh as he sat in a rolling office chair he had in his garage. It had taken him some time to clean up and now he was taking time in his garage to decompress and think of nothing. The peace and loneliness to be on his own property away from family was calming.

Conner looked over at the digital clock on the large workbench behind him, he let out a long sigh. It was just after three thirty in the morning. “Today is going to suck ass," he muttered as he got up from his chair and turned to look at his personal vehicles in the garage.

He now had a small collection, three cars, his sport bike, a dirt bike and his truck. Of course with his investments and management of the mining company, he had a significant amount of money he had no idea what to do with. Him being a car enthusiast gave him a good way to waste said money.

Conner stole a glance at one particular car in his garage, a gloss black lowered sports car. The emblem on the front appeared to be a V shape with one half of the V being a checkered flag while the other half was a red flag with a golden bowtie and a smaller golden symbol next to it that he couldn't see the details at this distance.

The sleek and aerodynamic design of the car screamed speed and handling as well as having a look that said; “I am American made!" Circling behind the car, Conner inspected the raised spoiler before looking at the four exhaust pipes directly below a black license plate that was obviously a fake plate with white text. The license plate read “QUIET" in big, bold letters in the centre while having “Ontario" in slightly smaller text above. Across the bottom of the plate it read; “In Shadows We Lurk, In Shadows We Hunt".

Conner smirked broadly as he stepped away from the blacked out car. “There is no inbetween… the C6s and C7s are either bone stock or monsters…"

“Are you thinking of forming an alibi?" the AI chuckled as Conner glanced over to his other newer addition to his garage, an older Japanese car with pop up headlights that were currently hidden. The car appeared to be much older than everything in Conner's garage… of course he knew it was actually two years older than he was.

“Simple," Conner chuckled, “I claim I was working on my RX-7 and C7 ZR1 all night. I have already installed the concealed blinding tail lights on my Mazda3, might as well install them on the Corvette too as she will rarely ever have her real plate exposed."

“You love playing with fire don't you?" The AI chuckled as Conner walked over to the blacked out Corvette

“Oh come on!" Conner laughed as he opened his right hand, palm facing up, tendrils of flame shot out of his palm. The flames danced out of his hand before he closed his hand into a fist and lowered his arm, the magical flames quickly extinguished. “You know who I am," he added as he opened the driver door and popped the hood.

…

Walking down the ramp into the massive garage complex, Daniella jumped as the massive bunker-like door closed with a thud behind her. Out of instinct her tail had tensed and wings mantled preparing to leap out of harm's way because the sound startled her.

She rolled her eyes and let out a sigh for being so jumpy. As she walked down the car ramp, the lights overhead turned on individually as she passed beneath them. Silently padding across the polished marble flooring, she rounded the corner and looked into the first sublevel of the garage. She saw Conner on the ground next to his Corvette that was on a hoist, the car was raised maybe two feet off the ground with it's hood and front bumper removed, parts and tools were scattered across the ground around Conner.

As Daniella approached, she noted that Conner was lying on his back and his chest was rising and falling slowly. She could hear that Conner had music playing from the sound system in the garage and was breathing slow and deep, but not snoring. Even though the volume of the music was low, she could tell it was some genre of Rock, maybe Metal music.

Once she got within a few feet of Conner, she gasped at the obviously fresh gash on his neck and a small cut on his nose, as well as what looked like slashes from claws on his arms. In total, he had two slashes running parallel on the inside of his right arm while he had three slashes running parallel on the back of his left. Each wound looked cleaned and seemed to be scabbed over, but she couldn't see any stitches.

Daniella leapt forward and shook Conner awake, the human responded by bolting upright and jumping to his feet. His eyes bright red and wild as he landed in a fighting stance. It was barely noticeable, but small bolts of electricity danced between Conner's fingers.

Conner let out a long sigh and visibly relaxed as he realized it was just Daniella, his eyes slowly fading back to vivid green and his pupils returning from slits to rounded. “What the fuck happened to you!?" Daniella demanded, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and anger.

Conner seemed caught by surprise for a second before he glanced down at his right arm and touched his neck. “Oh… a bear, I had forgotten something in the garage at home. I drove the truck there with only the battery so I wouldn't wake everyone up." He chuckled, gesturing to the truck. “Once I grabbed what I needed, I exited the garage and approached my truck, I came face to face with a grizzly…" he lied

“Is that why I heard a gunshot at like two or three in the morning?" Daniella sighed.

“Yes," Conner said, finalizing his lie. Even though he trusted Daniella with his life, when the police came knocking, he'd rather she not have to be burdened to lie to law enforcement and risk being charged as an accomplice in Ryjin's murder.

“You're positive it was a grizzly…" Daniella lowered her head and narrowed her eyes.

“Oh for Christ sake!" Conner exclaimed as he made a motion with his hand at his Corvette. “You want to know why I look like I've already been stitched up and had them removed?" he groaned while pointing at the ground around the parts scattered across the floor.

Daniella's eyes widened as she saw a swarm of black dots coming from seemingly nowhere on the ground. The black dots continued to get larger and actually began moving the car parts back over to Conner's ZR1.

“They are tiny robots the size of a nanogram, each one can combine and lock to each other to form certain items, some are built for specific things and others are built for a variety of tasks." Conner explained as the tiny robots put his car back together. “I'm calling them Nanites," he added.

“I… wow," Daniella was at a loss for words, Conner's intelligence and creativity fascinated her. “Is this one of your Element and Antimatter experiments?" she asked curiously.

“It was the first project I ran with, it is not an experiment… call it a successful prototype," Conner smiled. “But that's why my wounds look stitched, they are fantastic at fixing up wounds," he added.

Daniella stared for a second, she almost slipped out an; “I love you," but managed to bite her tongue and stop herself…. “That would have been sooo fucking awkward!" she thought to herself. “I'd love to hear about more of your projects…. Maybe a second brain could be useful too?" Daniella questioned with a tilt of her head.

Conner chuckled at the dragon's display. “I'll think about it, you did get skipped up two grades so we would be in the same classes, maybe a second genius wouldn't hurt," he mused with a smirk.

…

A few construction workers doing road work late at night stared at the sleek black mass that sat idling at the light beside them. The chopping rumble of a cam'd V8 shook the ground.

“You think that cop is going to chase them?" One of the workers asked his friend standing next to him.

“Pfff! Come on, he's in…. Uhhhh, that's a Corvette, I think a C7. Listen to it!" The other worker laughed. “It is definitely a monster, the thing is also blacked out. He's not catching shit!"

The Corvette rumbled forward, both workers' mouths turned into smiles as they saw the license plate.

“'In Shadows We Lurk, In Shadows We Hunt'... holy fuck!" The first worker laughed.

The police car that was sitting near the road workers chirped his sirens. “Come here and pull over in front of me." The Officer said angrily into his PA System.

“Ha! I don't think so!" The Corvette driver responded smugly through his own PA System before he floored it.

The front of the car lifted off the ground as the car accelerated instantly like it was an EV, but the roar and scream of the supercharged V8 said it was definitely not full electric.

In less than two seconds, the Corvette was just tail lights in the distance. The workers watched as the entire road was lit up by a blinding bright white light, the light started to flicker for a few seconds before shutting off…. The Corvette's tail lights were gone.

…

Conner was laughing like a maniac as he adjusted his glasses on his face, the Corvette had shaped out to be everything he'd hoped for and more. With the parallel hybrid engine, it gave him the instant torque Tesla fanboys would always brag about, but his car still had a soul and he could definitely push his car further by making his own parts.

“Did that cop even bother chasing me?" Conner asked between stifled snorts and giggles.

“After you killed your lights? No." the AI chuckled.

“Four hundred fifty… damn!" Conner exclaimed with a smirk as he let off the gas, the entire road behind him lit up bright orange as the car backfired.

He didn't dare turn his lights back on and opted to rip down the road in the shadows, relying on his night vision to remain undetected.

…

An Officer sat in his car on the side of the road, he heard that a black modified sports car should be coming down this road at high speed with its lights off. He was hoping to get an easy tag of the plate as the car flew by with its lights back on.

What the officer didn't expect was for his windows to shake as an ungodly roar rocked his car, he didn't see anything and once his car stopped rocking he stared at his radar detector.

The number on the screen read 467 km/h…

The officer's jaw dropped, he knew there wasn't even any point in radioing in as the car was long gone now.

…

“You just love to poke the hornet's nest?" the AI laughed, noting Conner's shit eating grin in the dark cabin of the car, it sighed. “You just have to go toying with Law Enforcement even after having them knock on your parents door two days ago for Ryjin's death!"

“Pfff, it's been how long now? I killed him like two weeks after my seventeenth birthday and it is now March of 2023… I think I'm in the clear for now." Conner chuckled.

“You still can't ignore the fact that you are at the top of their suspect list… and not to mention, everyone at school thought you did it! You're lucky shit didn't hit the fan before you and Daniella graduated," The AI sighed.

“Fuck…" Conner sighed, he knew the AI was right and Daniella had not been acting distant with him, but she looked like she wanted to ask him what really happened. Daniella was not stupid, she was likely as smart as he was or possibly smarter and it wouldn't take a genius to piece together the fact that he probably didn't kill a bear that night.

Conner slumped back as far as he comfortably could and dropped his left hand into his lap, he had made significant progress with his Element testing and thankfully the construction company he and his father co-owned had almost finished his new house. He wanted to be excited, but other things in his life had started to boil over.

Remorse over Ryjin's murder was thankfully non-existent, but tensions with his family had only gotten worse. His brother continued to torment and test his terrible temperament and his mother had asked him on multiple occasions to come clean about Ryjin.

Thankfully Daniella and her parents had stayed out of it, Scarlet, Daniella's mother, had lended him her ear so he could vent about his family more times than he could count. He knew Scarlet had told Aeros and Daniella about what he said though, thankfully nothing had been passed to Jason or Catherine… yet.

After a few minutes and several road changes, Conner was positive he'd lost the police entirely but he still opted to drive home in complete darkness. Better to stay hidden and store the car for a few days.

“Well Captain Genius, are you glad you took off?" the AI sighed.

“Better than getting a bullshit ticket with my project car," Conner retorted.

“Well that project car is pretty damn unique, if you plan to drive it within the next week or two, expect to be chased," the AI warned.

“It's pitch black, I doubt they'd get a positive ID on the car and I could easily make a complaint in court that the stop was unwarranted as they had no proof that I was that same car that ran a few days ago," Conner commented.

“Fair point," the AI responded.