Page 15 of Until The Lights Go Out

RACE WEEKEND ZERO - PRESEASON TESTING

It had been years since I’d spent real time at a race circuit, but the atmosphere hadn’t changed at all. Mechanics moved quickly between garages, carts rattled over uneven pavement, and the distant whine of engines echoed down the pit lane. The paddock always smelled the same, an oddly comforting mix of smells that wrapped around me the moment I stepped out of the hospitality building.

It should have felt familiar. Instead, it felt like the ground beneath me had tilted slightly off balance. My phone buzzed in my hand before I’d even made it halfway across the paddock. I didn’t need to look at the screen to know who it was.

“Hey, Serena,” I said the moment I answered, my words coming out in a deep sigh.

“You sound weird,” Serena replied immediately. I let out a quiet laugh.

“Hello to you too.”

“I know your voices, Maisey Andrews,” she said bluntly. “That’s your ‘I just saw a ghost’ voice.”

I slowed my steps, drifting toward the quieter edge of the paddock near the team hospitality motorhomes. “Technically,” I said, “ghosts are dead.”

“What a shame,” Serena said. “How did the meeting go?”

I leaned against the railing overlooking the garages below.

For a moment, I just watched the movement of people rushing back and forth beneath me. Helmets. Headsets. Engineers with tablets tucked under their arms. Drivers walking with that familiar pre-race focus.

“It went fine,” I said.

Serena made a noise that sounded deeply unconvinced. “And?”

“And what?”

“And did you see him?”

I closed my eyes briefly. “Yes,” I admitted quietly. There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing? Everything?” I said. “It was a meeting.”

“With Theo.”

“Yes.”

“The Theo Bauer.”

I rubbed my temple.

“Yes, Serena. The one and only.”

“Big day, huge day.” Another pause stretched between us. “So,” Serena said slowly, “did he say anything weird? Was it awkward? Did he act like a jerk?”

“No? Yes?” I offered.

“Mmhm,” she hummed knowingly.

I watched a pair of drivers walking down the paddock lane, laughing about something as they passed a cluster of photographers.

“It was just…strange,” I said after a moment.