Rings of Fate
Chapter 12: The Price of Yearning….
Doc paced around the room…. Fear eating at his wisdom and calm nature… making him restless…. No one in town has seen Alice or Kendal… and…. Quinn…. Where the heck did Quinn go?
He stopped in his tracks… his crystal eyes focusing on a point, deep in thought….Quinn…. he was a good kid….. had a good heart, and he can be a goof sometimes…. But…. He wouldn't just take off…. He just never seemed to be the type to just run away….
Doc grumbled to himself , "he could of at least told someone where he was goin'…"
Alice…. He always was around her…. …. if he found Alice, Quinn shouldn't be too far behind her…. …
A very small smile tugged at the corner of Doc's grill from that thought…. Alice and Quinn…. Quinn and Alice…. A very soft low chuckle sounded from Doc.
But… Alice….. just disappeared…. Right in his tires…
Doc swallowed funny as whatever happiness quickly drained from his features…. "she could be anywhere…" Doc's voice was almost a whisper….. "She could be sick…" Doc blinked slowly… "Actually….. she hasn't eattin' all day…."… fear coated his soft eyes….. "…. I hope it's just something she ate last night…"….. he closed his eyes….. "she…
"Kendal….."
Just her name caused guilt to twist in his gut…. "oh…Kendal…"
His eyes closed in frustration… slamming a tire on the ground…when crunching sound came from under his tires….
He paused…. Slowly lifting he tire….. as he watched some of the broken shards fall from under his whitewalls… the broken glass from the broken frame still littered the ground…..
He gently set his tire on the clean tile near the glass… and just stared at the shimmer... the glass bouncing the light all around the room…. How ironic it was… Broken Glass… Beautiful and harmless… but Dangerous and deceiving….
His eyes closed…
"Huddy?... Huddy, Darling? Are you alright?"
He gritted his teeth at the oversweet voice as that caused him to almost shudder in his frame… He took his tire, and started pushing the glass around him into a small pile…. "yeah…"
"Oh, I saw the glass on the ground and thought something happened" Her over sweet voice fueled at Doc's frustration. She rolled over, grazing her side with his…..Doc took a step sideways….
Christine paused at his side step… "Aww Huddy are you achy? Does it hurt when I do this?" Christine stepped to the side, rubbing her fender with his…. Doc leaned away from her... "in a way."
Christine snapped away from him and shot him a look, "What's bothering you Sweetie…." Her eyes narrowed as that "sweet" speech died from her voice….
He sighed… closing his eyes…. Picturing that familiar 300 on his side….. her midnight blue eyes reading him….
"Huddy!"
He flinched at his pet name.
"Huddy! You better answer me!" Her eyes seemed to blaze with furry….. "You know what happens when I'm mad… "
Doc flinched at the thought.
"Huddy!Answer me!"
"Don't. Call. Me. That."
Christine snapped back in surprise, "what did you just say?"
Doc rose a little higher on his shocks, His face just as hard as his crystal narrowed eyes….. "Oh, I think you heard me quite clearly."
Christine eyes were fierce…. "Huddy…" she hissed…. "You listen to me!"
Doc looked at her right in the eye…. "No, You'll shut your trap, and you'll listen to me for once you hot hooded Women Car!"
Christine raised herself even more meeting his piercing gaze….the tension was indescribable …She devil VS Ex. Racer….
"She Devil! Is that how you treat your fiancé you brute!"
"Who said you were! I never got the chance to propose!" He huffed a laugh, "Ha! if it wasn't for you leaving me, I would have made the most ludicrous decision in my life! I should be thanking you!"
"Thanking me? It was because you wreaked that I left! If you didn't mess up on the track we would have been married, rich, and possibly a few kids of our own!"
Doc shuddered at the thought…..
"Plus, you wouldn't be hiding your pitiful self in this cruddy little poor excuse for a town! You wreaked our lives!"
"Oh ho oh! So now it's all my fault that the race was fixed!"
"Yes! You should of known better Huddy! You're the "fabulous Hudson Hornet"! The Best Racer of all time! The one that never loses!"
"The Race wasn't fair, Christine! What did you expect from me! Pull a miracle and just jump the trap that I didn't know existed? Or just magically …." He paused….. settling a little in his shocks…..'heal myself….'
"Come on Huddy! You pitiful, useless , scrap metal! Get up and straight things out around here… I need a place to stay once things are in order, and somethings…." Her eyes focused on the Hornet while saying the word… "need to get put back in their place…."
Doc looked back up at her, his teeth bared at the sight of her. "Get…. Out…."
Christine focused her blazing eyes…. "Huddy… I live here now…."
"My house….My Rules….. Get… Out…."
Christine rolled closer to his face…. "You can't tell me what to do huddy…."
Doc's eyes narrowed, "I'm not Huddy."
Christine paused her eyes not weakening…. "Then who are you….. nothing?"
Doc paused…. Remembering….her sweet voice…. That little game she played…. That smile…. The twinkle in her midnight eyes…. The dark fins with the paint that had you guess what color it was… 'why do you call me that? 'he asked her questioning….She smiled….'well, isn't that your name?'….
He took a breath… looked at her straight in the eye…. And said as clear as day… "I am Hudson."
Christine's eyes quivered.
Hudson narrowed his eyes, baring his teeth….. "I am a retired racer… I am a town doctor… I am a judge of a small town… I am a friend to many… I'm important to few… I am a crew chief of McQueen….. I like to see myself as a guardian to Alice…. …." He moved forward causing Christine to back up…. "I know my place in this world…. Do you know yours?"
Christine glared at him, "You shut your mouth."
"You…." He eyed her for a moment….reading her….as he jerked his body towards the door… "Get Out of my Clinic."
Christine paused. Blinking a few times in surprise. Her eyes fell to the ground…. Then back up at him…. "Fine… I see how it is…."…. her grill curved up into a sickening smile…. "You're going to be sorry…."
Hudson found himself growling out his frustration…. "I don't care what you plan on doing to me Christine…"
Christine smirked… "Oh… but I already have…. "Hudson"…. …"… Her eyes sparkled…. "Who said revenge starts with you?"
Doc's eyes widened….his expression dying on his face…
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"Ken-dal!"…. His earthy voice echoed further down, bouncing the sound around like it was so sort of game of catch… if only someone would return the call…..
"Alice?"….. His tired voice went higher in pitch at the thought that… Alice could be just like Kendal… missing…
"Kendal!" … "Alice!"….. He swallowed, his warm brown eyes searched the grassy scenery that at this point seemed to blend together into one massive green smear alongside the road….
"Ke-" He paused in his stride as his voice froze from yelling for what feels like all day…..his eyes shut tight as he eased himself to a halt… this almost seemed….pointless…..
He opened his frustrated eyes… as he looked up at the sunny blue sky….. then back down at the ground… he swallowed hard…. As his eyes looked back up at the blue sky…..
"Momma?" his voice was so soft, it almost sounded like he was a little toddler as his wondrous eyes looked for some sort of response…. "h-how did you … keep on going?...when everything seems… hopeless?"….He found his eyes burn with emotion as he felt his heart tighten…. He needed his mother…. Her strength, Her wisdom, and her endless hope…
A breeze rubbed up along his side, causing Quinn to relax… a wave of calmness washed over him….
'Don't give up….'
His soft eyes zoned at the road ahead….. "I feel like I failing….like, am I even going the right way? Should I keep running around until I run myself dry? Do I go back?"…. he paused… "Heck! Alice might be with Kendal now at Flo's…." a flutter of hope grew for a second…. Then fell just as quickly as it came….
'Don't give up…..'
Quinn felt himself sigh, "how will I know?" he spoke his mind to the world…. "How will I know if I will find them….? how do I know where to go?"
'Don't give up….on something… that is worth fighting for…..'
Quinn swallowed, "Don't give up on something that is worth fighting for…."He swallowed hard at the last words she said to him toyed with his mind, and his heart…
His eyes were fierce, focused and determined; he revved his low rich engine…fueled with a new drive…..
"they are worth fighting for… all of them….Alice, Kendal, Doc, lightning…. everyone in town…. Even Sheriff….." He paused, rethinking that statement... then nodded in agreement… "Even though quite frankly…. He scares the living sparkplugs right out of me!"
He started forward again…. Then slammed on his brakes when a thought occurred to him, "Sheriff never got back about the whole "impersonating a sheriff" thing….."…. He paused…. As he just sat there for a few more moments…. Blank faced… wondering…..
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Blurry…. Fuzzy vision…. The brown/ green things surrounded her vision…..trees?... Yeah… trees she was somewhere in the woods… somewhere….. she needed…. Oh …. What was the word…..that….. thing….. ….the…..
She reached out with a tire towards that gray blur, trying to grasp that familiar name….when a shiny rim caught her distant eyes by surprised…..black tread like things hung off the rim... just then…. A pain rippled through her frame…. She paused…. Blinking her eyes a few times….. her blurry vision sharpened a lil'…. Her tire was shredded... her fender…. Her fender was smashed right in…..
Another pulse of pain rippled through her, causing a moan to escape from her grill….. as she went to rise on her tires to just end up on the cold un-forgiving ground.….
"Hon'?"….. Her eyes weakly looked around her surrounding of the fuzzy brown/green trees…. "Hon', Sweetie? Are you alright?"…. … Her eyes looked aimlessly for that faint voice that kept echoing in her scrambled thoughts… "m-mom?"
"Alice? What happened to you?"
She blinked slowly trying to focus her eyes…. When something didn't feel right…. Her body shook uncontrollably …. Her tank was knotted and twisted in pain like food poisoning….. was it something she ate this morning?
"Mom… Mom something's wrong with me…. Some-….thing" she looked around…. To realize ….. she was alone…
Her violet eyes crashed closed….as tears ran down her hood….
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