Long long long story….. I'll just cut to the case….
Rings of Fate:
Chapter 8: Just Believe.
She jolted awake…. Sweat beaded from the stress of the dream she just had… panting from the rush of adrenalin still surging from her shaking frame…. Another horrible dream….. Another horrible, realistic, disturbing dream…. She swallowed hard…. Noticing the soreness, the dryness of her throat….. How long was she out this time? Her burning eyes slowly rolled over to the clock at her side….12:56 p.m. … Almost one…..
She found herself blinking oddly at that... it was that late already? Her body allowed her to sleep that late? What was that…. seventeen hours? She remembered coming into her cone around seven…. And she was writing a little in her journal…… then everything is…
A pounding at her cone door caused her to roll back…. Her bumper bumping into the wall behind her causing some of the frames to fall of the wall… breaking…. "Alice? Alice? Are you alright?" A voice panicked from the other side… "Alice, Oh Alice, please open up!" the tire banging at the door, pleading to get in.
Her tire clicked to button nearby causing the door to roll up. And just as it rolled up, there stood a panic stricken charger, his sugar brown eyes wide…. "Alice are you alright?"
Alice blinked a couple of times. "Well I was…. now I've got a hood ach…"
Quinn paused, lowering a little on his shocks, " Sorry, it's just I heard you screaming, and from everything that's has happened I just-"
"Wait, you heard me scream?" Alice cut him off, her slightly glassy eyes from lack of sleep squinted from the bright light that was coming in from the outside….
Quinn blinked, his face slightly confused, "Yeah you were screaming… " His eyes blink furiously as his voice softened, "I thought you were in trouble…."
Alice paused, watching his behavior …. "No… I just… had a bad dream that's all."
Quinn sighed with some relief. "Good…Well not good that you keep having these dreams but…. " his eyes fell to the floor… " I was worried about you, Mater had to tow you in last night from Wheel Well."
Alice paused, "He had to tow me?"
Quinn nodded slowly at the memory, "Yeah, you fainted. Doc said you were fine but… I was still…. Worried…." His eyes glanced up at Alice's then quickly off to the side… scuffing his tire a little…..
Alice smile became shy… "well…. I'm fine. there is -….." She froze, her eyes going wide. Her once thought realistic dream, wasn't really a dream at all… Doc took her up to Wheel Well, She saw the stars, and meet face to face with her nightmare… was real…..
Her tank sank low…… She was real…..
"Alice?...."
"No….no no no no no!" She felt her engine crank over, revving it a few time, not giving enough of a chance for Quinn to move out of the way in time for her charge, causing Alice to scrap his side roughly when she sprinted out of the cone…
'this can't be happening…. No please just make it a coincidence…. Please…. Don't tell me..' she thought in her racing mind as she quickly whipped in to Flo's… everyone was grouped around in a circle. A bitter taste came to her mouth…. 'No….'
She slowly rolled behind one of the town folk and cautiously peered over their roof…. And she quickly saw…..Ramone…. a new paint job… the white and blue lines danced with the hot sliver he wore… he dressed himself so cool in a day that was so hot. It almost sent a chill up your chasse.
Alice blinked, her tense frame relaxing as Ramone changed angles, showing off the contrast of the paint. "Hey man, check out the light bouncin' of the colors" Ramone proudly said as the sun light did dance off of the lines.
Alice chuckled at the sight. Everything seemed normal. Surrounded by her make shift family….
"Alice! What is the matter?"
Alice paused, turning to face the Red Charger…. A huge dent was on his fender…. some paint was scrapped off from his hid from the impacted. Did she really do that?
"Quinn… your fender" Alice's face was mortified at the site… "Quinn, I am so sorry. I-" a tire covered her mouth..
"Alice…." Quinn's eyes were quivering, a very shy shaking smile …. "Alice, I -"
"What happened to your fender there?"
Quinn's eyes crashed together, sighing in frustration…. "It's just a scrap."
Alice's voice dropped into a whisper, "What we're you going to say?"
Quinn shook his head, "nothing… it's nothing…" he quickly said before his eyes moved on to the country doctor, making his way on over.
"So, it's just a scrap?" he said quite evenly, lightly touching around the dent, causing Quinn to flinch... Doc paused, "it appears you were in quite a fender bender," Doc weakly smiled at his own pun, "let alone a scrap."
Quinn watched Alice backed off a little… her violet eyes fixated on the ground, her stance uneasy….
"What mindless idiot caused this?" Doc looked up from the dent at Quinn's expression, and before Quinn had time to change his gaze… Doc followed it…. To Alice… a corner of her bumper and grill was a little banged up, a familiar red paint dabbled the wound. Doc's eyes were concerned. "Alice."
Alice looked up at him… then back on the ground… "Yes?"
"Is everything alright?" He asked very calmly, his crystal eyes full of worry.
Alice suddenly became antsy, fidgeting a little…. "Well, yeah… it was just a mishap… I didn't mean too…." her eyes looked back up at Doc's… then Quinn's….. then back on the ground, lowering herself, " My dreams are becoming too real now… I'm starting to believe that she actually exists…."
Doc blinked, "that, who exist?"
Alice shrugged, her eyes a little distant, " I don't know her name… but those, horrid eyes I'll never forget…" She shuddered slightly from the thought of it. "But in this dream… " Her eyes shifted to Doc's, "You knew her."
Doc paused. He lowered himself a little. Now his eyes were fixated on the ground.
"I know… crazy dream huh?"
Doc sighed. "Alice… what does that have to do with Quinn?"
Alice lowered herself even more… "I rushed out of the cone and kind of…. Knocked into him …"
Quinn winced a little… "No really it's nothing… All I need is Kendal to work her magic on me, and it would be as if it never happened" Quinn smiled "Don't worry! It's nothing! No big deal!"
Doc looked over at Quinn… then around his eyes defeated looking… "I… I haven't seen her since last night…"
Alice swallows hard… "You haven't seen my mother?"
Doc shook his hood slowly,his eyes low…." I was going to go look for her… when I noticed Quinn's fender…."
Alice eyes went wide….. Remembering the freshly written page of her dream journal…. The list of things… "-Mom's not there"
"Wh-where could she be?" the distant works came from her disbelieving features….
Quinn and Doc watched her strange behavior, "Alice, it's okay." Doc calmly spoke. "She probably went on a little drive or something."
"You know how Kendal is… She's here for a minute… then off doing her own thing."
Alice's fear grew… "Sh-She'd tell someone… she's not like that…" … it showed in her shaking voice…. "She doesn't want folk to worry… she wouldn't just get up and left… … No…. " …. As it grew louder…. Catching the attention of everyone in the small little town…..
"Alice… You need to remain calm…" Doc said evenly and gently, trying to ease her stress…
"Yes Alice, There is nothing to fret about." the words came from her side this time as she looked over. Into the red brown eyes of the Plymouth Fury.
Alice let the growing fear take over her senses as she jetted away from that thing's side , whipping around to face her dead on, nearly knocking into Quinn again. "W-WHO ARE YOU!" She mindlessly screamed at the new comer, not seeing the strange looks that everyone in town shot at her…
The Plymouth Fury blinked in surprise by the strange reaction she received, "I'm Christine, from last night? When you blacked out on us?... Don't you remember?" something connected in her thoughts, "Oh honey, are you feeling okay? Are you sick?"
Alice blinked furiously in disbelief, "What?" She said sharply causing Doc to sharply nudge her side, "Alice, she's just trying to be nice, you don't need to get snippy."
Alice eyed her strangely, observing her reactions… Her face was concerned… but… it didn't touch her eyes….. Those horrid eyes…
"No. I'm not sick." Alice tone was still hard, defensiveness kicked in. If she lost her guard even just for a second….
"Alice…" Doc's tone wasn't impressed by her tone still…
"If all of you will excuse me… I'm going to look for my mother…" Alice's eyes narrowed on Christine… that shifted onto Doc….. his face was hard, unimpressed at her action…. A sharp pain pierced her heart….
She closed her eyes… and took off…. In a direction away from there….. it didn't really matter where she went.
She opened her tear filled eyes, some of the tears just dripping from the wind… she didn't want to let everyone know… she was flat out scared…
Christine let herself sigh, "Oh I hope the poor thing is alright. She wasn't looking so good."
Quinn's eyes fell at the thought of that… Alice's hasn't slept well in a while… was she losing it? …Seeing things, starting to believe that her dreams are real…
Quinn found himself sigh, as he knocked himself out of gear, just letting himself roll away…. Deep in thought.
'Alice.' He said her name in his head…. And so many things happened…. A smile crossed his grill… remembering some funny things that happened between the two…reflecting the past… when he told her he was staying, seeing her violet eyes light up at that fact, getting tackled with an embrace…. He chuckled at that thought…. He still didn't regret leaving his Dad, Aero, and his brother, Skyler back at home… His dad understood his decision, where as his brother… normally shy, quickly embraced him and just shook… he was upset…. Quinn knew, He hasn't seen Skyler in years…. And when he was finally out of Jack's prison, stayed for an hour or two… then just got up and left… 'Dang'… He thought to himself, 'So much for catching up with him.'…. but the thing is… he truly loved it here… he felt as if… this is where he truly belonged… Here in Radiator Springs, with the town folk, with….. a smiled tugged at that thought…… 'Alice'.
… then… the smile quickly faded to present day, Alice being dragged back by Mater… Those panicked eyes, the edginess…. Her nightmares…. His eyes softened at that thought…. Watching her cry in her sleep….. mumbling about those horrible red brown eyes…
………. He hit his brakes. Red Brown eyes. Hang on….
He turned back around again…. Facing the new comer… Her smile was normal…. But her eyes were a little… strange….creepy looking…. He felt a shiver go up his hid…. How can you blame someone that has nightmares because of those eyes, heck even just looking at those eyes he might have nightmares himself! What normal folk has Red eyes?....
He paused, weakly chuckling at himself… then again…. What normal folk has "gifts"? Look at the town now, you got a women car that can heal…somewhere at least….. A young charger that can mimic anyone… a young mustang that can stop time… Possibly another with protection… If his father was around, they could go wherever they wanted in a blink of an eye… Skyler with….
Something Dawned on him… back tracking a little on his conversation he was having with himself… Alice's Mom… Kendal… She was missing… didn't Alice say something like that in her sleep… her mom, gone… And now she's….
Another thing just came to him…. Alice… the gift of time… .. i-is it possible that she's….
Quinn's eyes lit up, she wasn't crazy! "Alice!" He quickly gunned it … passing the town folk , which to them looked like a red blur screaming "Alice!"
Doc blinked at the sudden sight… "What the heck is going on with this town lately?"
Honestly I hate how this chapter ended up…..