ʀᴇᴅ sᴛʀɪɴɢ ᴏғ ғᴀᴛᴇ; ᴍᴀx ᴠᴇʀsᴛᴀᴘᴘᴇɴ

1.

—

In the competitive world of Formula 1, success is short lived. Your last race is what people remember you by until your next win or loss. That's why it's famously advised to the racers to forget everything and just focus on pushing their car to its limits when they are on track.

Everyone, including two time world champion Max Emillian Verstappen understood that. Hence why he sat in his therapists office at 3pm on a Sunday; that too on his first weekend off in three weeks.

"Is it your dad again?" Dr Ameera Kutharpali's voice is assertive yet her tone still holds room for the 24 year old to ponder on her question.

He pauses his tapping foot before clicking his tongue and continuing to explore his thoughts. His hands lay idle on his lap.
He's there in the room , physically atleast, but his mind is hinged on the constant hallucinations and nightmares he's been having.

It almost always starts out wholesome. He's sat next to a beautiful girl. It's a bright sunny day in the city or a cold cozy morning in the woods as they are walking hand in hand or cuddling. She looks at him , smiling, as her dark brown orbs get cascaded behind her crescent eyed smile. Her laughs send shivers down his spine as he watches her body shake with each laugh making her brown curly hair fall forward gracefully.

Just as he's getting used to her appearance, she fades away slowly- her laugh still echoing.

"No. It's a girl." Max's eyes catch on to the way his therapists' face twitches.
"Relationship problems?" Her voice is filled with amusement.
Max sighs, if only that was the case.
"I don't even know who she is."
All that she's ruining his performances.

"At first it was in my dreams. I would see her and lay awake for hours wondering who she is and why her image is so vivid in my mind." His foot stops it's dance, noticeably, as Dr.kutharpali reaches for her pen and starts scribbling words on it.

"I was getting sleep deprived as it is. Until I started seeing her image in the middle of races. That too clear as day!- I mean she was right there, I almost hit her with my car!" He scoffs loudly letting it dissolve into a deep laugh of disbelief.

"Are you more stressed out recently?" Her gaze is sharp as she alternates between scribbling on her notepad to watching the clock on her wrist.
"Just the usual. But if this keeps happening- I might start underperforming, I could lose my contract-" his breaths get heavy just as the watch on her wrist rings loudly.

"Deep breaths, Max. Our session is over, let's talk more about this in the next one." She smiles shortly , getting up and making her way to him across the room.
"Until then, try to write down each time you see her and do not forget to take your sleeping vitamins. They are the most important medications out of all of them."

The loud noise of the TV acts as a cover up for the points leader as he's lost in his thoughts. His head , swaying side to side ,against the edge of the sofa as the abnormal amount of vitamins he had taken start to kick in.

Tomorrow was the start of a new week, and also the 1 month anniversary of his hallucinations. He had vowed to somehow stop them before the birds start chirping in the morning.

However just a few minutes into his slumber; he's sat in his car on the side of the road. Their hands are interlaced as the slow hum of a song playing on the radio filled the comfortable silence between them. Max's water coloured eyes stared into hers as he leaned in, his gaze shifting from her lips to her eyes. Her breaths are falling short in anticipation but just as Max's closes his eyes; there's nothing there. He backs away , glancing around the car only to find it empty.

-Run run runaway baby before I put my spell on you-
Max reaches for the radio , mindlessly switching it off before getting out the car. The night is dark , the road is empty and there is no one there except him.

In his apartment, he gasps awake. Beads of sweat fall from his head. His back is wet. The light from his TV flashes in his eyes as loud cackles from an old 1970 film fill his apartment. His cats must have sensed his distress because they sit near the kitchen , watching his every move as he moves between filling up their food bowls to emptying the vitamin bottle. Their suspicious eyes watch as he falls back onto the sofa , lazily flipping through channels until the remote falls out of his hand and the sound of the program gets heavily overshadowed by his snores.
—
Idek what year this is based on but probably one of the last two-since the domination of super max