Heartdriven: Too Driven To Drive

4. Paralyzed

Trigger warning: This chapter contains content that some readers may find upsetting.

Returning home, defeated, Sebastian had lost the hope of finding Alice before she would come to him. How he hoped that she would come to him. She knew, she knew how much she meant for him. She couldn't just disappear from his life, without any explanation.
Sebastian had the Red Bull victory party to go to on Saturday, but it seemed unimaginable how he was supposed to put on a mask and have fun, when all his time would be spent worried about Alice.
He just couldn't believe any of this was happening. They had just found each other again, and he had been happy with her and he knew she had felt the same. Why did he listen to her, when she said everything would be fine? She was never right about anything and now everything was fucked.

As a final resort and an act of desperation, he went back to the bag she had asked for him to keep safe. He had at first dismissed going through it, but he needed any clue he could find, and she had given him permission in her letter. Even if he felt he was crossing a limit, this was more important.
All the postcards... the countless postcards she had received, were there. The postcards that he now knew were from William. It disgusted him. There was a letter and a card. Both from William as well, and the purpose of this bag started to became clear: it was a collection of evidence. The documents were there, from the first time Alice had went to the police station and tried to reporting him for violating his restraining order. And that was not all. All the papers covering the examination of the rape kit. Sebastian could not bear to read that... knowing everything she had gone through and he hadn't been there for her, and even now she was alone and there was nothing he could do, and all he wanted was to hold her and make her feel safe and protected in his arms.
The final item that had fallen to the bottom of the bag, was a USB-drive. He grabbed his laptop and plugged it in. It opened a video. It was a dark screen, but he knew it was playing because there was a low audio coming out of the speakers. He turned up the volume, and recognised the sound as Alice. She was crying. Ice coldness travelled down his body, hearing her whimpering. The screen turned greenish, it looked like night vision, as Alice became visible in the video. Her expression was in agony and there was movement on top of her, growling as she was crying, and Sebastian slammed the screen down to the keyboard, shutting the video off.
He could feel his whole body trembling, going through all the emotions from fear, anger, dread, and terror. He was horrified, leaving the chair and walking back and forth, contemplating and unable to fathom what disturbing thing he had just seen.
He unplugged the USB-drive before he could watch another second and collected it with the rest of the evidence in the bag, making sure it was securely hidden away in the safe he had hiding in his office. If all she wanted from him, was to keep this evidence safe, he was going to guard it like her life depended on it. It might.