Heartdriven: Too Driven To Drive

6. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered

The letter was still roaming in Sebastian's head as he was trying to put all the information (or lack of) together in his head. He really had to put his trust in Alonso to take care of her? Not even knowing what state she was in or what had caused her to be in any kind of state where she needed to be taken care of.
But worst of all, as he was re-reading her letter, he made himself upset at her, angry even. How could she leave with only a letter left for him? There was nothing he wouldn't help her with, nothing he wouldn't do for her, and the thought that she had sought out Alonso rather than himself. He didn't like being angry with her, but god damn it, she was pissing him off. Why was she doing this to him? How could she do this to him?

To get his mind off things, Sebastian decided to go to the Red Bull victory party in Milton Keynes. As he was headed out of town to go to the airport, he found himself going round and round, looking at faces, searching for William, until he ended up at the police station, looking for him, but only finding the same police officer he had spoken to the last time.
"Officer Anderson. Is he here? Where is he?!", Sebastian paced up to her, trying not to raise his voice in a police station, but the emotions of fury were trying to overcome him.
"Keep your voice down, Mr. Vettel. Come, out here," she suggested with her head and he followed along. Just as they were out of sight for anyone, she started again, "Sir, I told you not to dig any deeper on this! Alice is safe, that is all you need to know."
Maybe that was all he needed to know, but there was more he wanted to know, "No, I need to know what happened to her! I need to speak to William, I know the bastard had something to do with this. Now where is he?"
"He's not here! And he's not coming back," she was quite assertive, but it wasn't enough for him.
"What did he do to her?"
She snapped at him and let the words rush out of her, "You listen to me, young man, I have already told you everything I can. You need to let this go, if you want her to be safe from him. We have already done everything we can for her, and if you drag her out from hiding, there is no telling what he might do, and then there is nothing more for us to do for her. You need to let her go."
"She wouldn't leave me like this," he shook his head, still in disbelief. 
Putting her cop attitude back on, he felt like she was asking him questions during an interrogation, "Wouldn't she? If she had no other choice? If her life was in danger?"
"Was her life in danger?", he could feel his confidence-anger fade and be taken over by that now common worry.
"Yes," she looked around at some of her colleagues passing by, "You need to leave now before anyone starts suspecting things. They will be asking harder questions than you, and might actually track her down. Do you understand?"
He nodded and left the police station, once again defeated. Had it really come to him needing to give up? That was not in his nature.

Sebastian was not good company at the victory party. At first. But then Daniel started pouring drinks on him, and he had very little memory of the rest of the night.
Last year's party might have been highlighted by Mark and his own Red Bull can toss contest... but this year, Sebastian seemed to recall some failed attempts at making house of cards with trophies, but not remembering if they were succesful.
He had landed safely back in his apartment to sleep off the buzz, but wanted to stay in it for a bit longer, as it helped him not think about Alice. Sobering up, would only make him remember.
He went to the fridge to grab a Red Bull to wake him up, but "accidentally" opened a bottle of beer instead, and put his phone on silent to stay in that buzz for the rest of the day.

Why he expected to find a message or missed phone call from Alice when he came to, was unbeknownst to him. Maybe it was the idea of trying to convince himself that the facts that had been presented before him were untrue, and she would come back to him any moment now. That 'any moment', turned to days... weeks... months... but the moment never came.