#◟ ⋆ hadley remington › drabbles !

[ambitionslost]

The Final Race. 

Before reading this is your friendly reminder to stay hydrated and take care of yourself! This didn't exactly go to plan, but when do drabbles ever do go to plan? MAJOR PLOT POINT: (Implied) Character death. So again, please take care of yourself. If you don't think you can handle reading it, please don't. 

The overcast sky loomed over Silverstone as Hadley Remington sat in her car, waiting for the start of her final Formula One race. The British Grand Prix—a fitting end to her storied career on this historic track. She gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles white beneath her racing gloves. This was it. The last time she'd hear the countdown, feel the surge of adrenaline as the lights went out.

As the race began, Hadley shot forward, muscle memory taking over. The familiar curves of Silverstone blurred around her as she navigated the high-speed straights and challenging corners. For a moment, she could almost pretend it was just another race, that she wasn't about to leave behind the only life she'd known for the past decade.

But the absence of Ottlie's voice lately was a stark reminder of why she was here. Why this had to be her last race.

Hadley had started in fifth position, a respectable place given her recent struggles.

By the tenth lap, Hadley found herself slipping back to seventh place. Her turns weren't as sharp, her reflexes not quite as quick as they once were. The younger drivers, hungry for glory, were leaving her in their wake.

"Focus, Remington," she muttered to herself, trying to recapture the fire that had once made her one of the most formidable drivers on the circuit.

As she approached the famous Maggots and Becketts complex, Hadley saw an opening. She could risk it all, make an aggressive move to overtake the car in front of her. It was the kind of daring maneuver that had defined her early career.

For a split second, she considered it. Then, unbidden, the memory of screeching tires and crumpling metal filled her mind. 

Hadley's foot eased off the accelerator. She took the turns wide, allowing another car to slip past her.

Eighth place now.

The laps ticked by, each one a reminder of what she was leaving behind. The thrill of the race, the camaraderie of the pit crew, the adoration of the fans. But also the constant danger, the knowledge that each race could be her last.

As she entered the final ten laps, Hadley found herself in tenth place. The podium was a distant dream now - but she never planned on making podium this race. 

That's when she felt it. A slight wobble in her right front tire. She radioed her team, who confirmed her suspicions. The tire was wearing faster than anticipated.

"Box this lap," her crew chief instructed.

Hadley shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Negative. I'm staying out."

"Hadley, be reasonable. You won't make it to the end."

She could almost hear the concern in his voice, but Hadley had made up her mind. She was finishing this race on her terms. No one else had known. No one could know, could they? Otherwise they would have stopped her from racing. 

The vibration grew stronger as she pushed through the high-speed turns. Hadley’s hands tightened on the wheel, tears starting to blur her vision. Entering Stowe Corner, Hadley felt the moment the tire finally gave way. The car jerked violently to the right, spinning out of control. This was going to be it, wasn’t it? 

The world turned upside down as the car flipped, skidding across the track in a shower of sparks and debris. Hadley's heart pounded in her ears, drowning out the screech of metal on asphalt. Was it too late to change her mind? 

Hadley hung suspended in her safety harness, the taste of blood in her mouth. 

She could still get out of this. Good. She had decided maybe she didn’t want to die this way. Sure, she still wanted it on her own terms, but that had been too scary. Knowing she shouldn’t, Hadley undid the safety harness, falling down with a huff. 

“Hadley, stay where you are.” The words barely registered through the crinkling of the ear piece as she started crawling out of the car. Hadley had almost finished standing up when a noise had her stopping and glancing up quickly, eyes widening before closing them just in time for one of the other cars to crash right into her.

[hremington]

The phone call shattered Hadley's world into a million jagged pieces. Ottlie was gone - her vivacious best friend, her confidante, the one who understood the duality of her life like no other. As the words "fatal accident" echoed hollowly, Hadley's knuckles whitened, gripping the phone until her pristine manicure left crescent indentations in her palm.

Beneath the polished veneer, a maelstrom raged. Ottlie's mischievous grin, her warm embraces, their shared laughter over one too many champagne flutes - all reduced to searing memories that flooded Hadley's mind. Her best friend was ripped away, and the guilt gnawed relentlessly.

She knew the truth that would devastate Ottlie's family - her beloved brother Julio, F1's golden boy, had been behind the wheel, intoxicated. In that delirious night of reckless passion after the Monaco Grand Prix, Hadley had been the only witness to Julio's drunken escapades before tragedy struck.

As she choked back the sobs, part of her withered at the thought of burying the truth to protect the man she desperately longed for, the one who had captivated her heart amid the adrenaline and champagne haze. Ottlie deserved justice, deserved to be grieved fully.

But Hadley's world operates by different rules, where secrets are diplomatically swept under luxuriant carpets. So she would mourn in private, with no solace but the meager consolation that at least Ottlie's final memories were joyful ones, celebrating her friend's triumphant comeback on the track they both loved.

[dropsofjupitcr]

The leap.

Hadley's heart thundered in her chest as the small plane climbed higher, engines straining. 15,000 feet and climbing. This was it - the plunge she'd fantasized about for years.

The muffled roar of the prop faded as the jump instructor pulled the door open. A bilateral blast of freezing air flooded the cabin, reality brutally manifesting. This was far more extreme than any of her brushes with death on the racetrack.

"No backing out now, Princess!" The grizzled veteran jumpmaster grinned, sensing her hesitation.

Hadley shot him a withering glare. She was no fragile heiress to coddle. Lifting her goggles, she stared into the vapid blue abyss yawning beyond the door frame. Her next inhalation would be freefall.

With a whoop, she kicked off from the step, adrenaline deafening her as she plummeted into the tugging clutches of gravity. The plane shrank behind her as she rapidly became a body in freefall, rotations unspooling in total weightlessness.

Five...four...three...the altimeter unwound with cold certainty.

Two...one...her fingers grasped the ripcord. Reality suspended for a sacred moment before the sudden reassuring jolt of deceleration.

Drifting softly earthward, Hadley exhaled hard. She'd just faced the terrifying spectacle of her own insignificant fragility against nature's vast, unblinking plane.

And she had never felt more gloriously alive.

[ambitionslost]

THE WRONG SURVIVOR.

Hadley's fingers tightened around the steering wheel as she maneuvered her sleek sports car through the winding roads of the Italian countryside. The roar of the engine did little to drown out the tumultuous thoughts swirling in her mind. She was supposed to be focused on the upcoming race, but all she could think about was the image that had been seared into her brain: Julio, laughing care-freely with his new boyfriend at a café in Monaco.

The sight had hit her like a punch to the gut. How dare he look so happy? How dare he move on when Ottlie, his own sister, was gone? The unfairness of it all made Hadley's blood boil. She pulled over at a scenic overlook, unable to concentrate on driving any longer. The sun was setting over the rolling hills, painting the sky in hues of orange and pink. It was the kind of view that Ottlie would have loved. Hadley could almost hear her voice, exclaiming over the beauty of it all. But Ottlie wasn't here. She would never see another sunset, never cheer Hadley on from the pit lane, never walk down the aisle in the wedding they should have planned together. All because of one snowy night and Julio's recklessness.

Hadley's phone buzzed with a message. It was from Julio, of all people.

"Hey, H. Saw you were in town. Want to grab dinner? There's someone I'd like you to meet." The audacity of it made Hadley want to scream. She typed out a scathing reply, her fingers shaking with rage. "How can you even ask me that? How can you be so casual about introducing me to your new boyfriend when your sister, my best friend … my girlfriend, is dead because of you?" She hit send before she could think better of it. Almost immediately, her phone started ringing. Julio's name flashed on the screen. Hadley ignored it, letting it go to voicemail. She couldn't bear to hear his voice right now. As the sun dipped below the horizon, Hadley's mind wandered back to that fateful night. The call that had shattered her world. The frantic rush to the hospital, only to be told it was too late. The disbelief, the denial, the crushing realization that Ottlie was gone forever. And through it all, Julio had walked away without a scratch. No consequences, no charges filed. The police had chalked it up to the treacherous road conditions, never suspecting that alcohol had played a part. Hadley had wanted to scream the truth from the rooftops, but she had no proof. Just the knowledge that Julio had been drinking heavily at the party before insisting he was fine to drive Ottlie home.

Her phone buzzed again. Another message from Julio.

"Hadley, please. It's not what you think. Can we talk?"

She ignored it, starting her car and pulling back onto the road. The familiar route to her hotel was a blur as memories of Ottlie flooded her mind. Their first kiss, stolen in the shadows of the Monaco Grand Prix after-party. The quiet moments in between races, when Ottlie would massage the tension from Hadley's shoulders… By the time Hadley reached her hotel, tears were streaming down her face. She parked haphazardly and rushed inside, ignoring the concerned looks from the staff. In the sanctuary of her suite, she finally allowed herself to break down.

How long she sat there, sobbing on the floor, she couldn't say. But eventually, a knock at the door roused her from her grief.

"Go away," she called out, her voice hoarse.

"Hadley, please. It's me. We need to talk."

Julio's voice sent a fresh wave of anger through her. She stormed to the door, yanking it open.

"What part of 'go away' don't you understand?" she snarled.

Julio stood there, looking distraught. His eyes were red-rimmed, his usually immaculate hair disheveled.

"Hadley, please. I know you're angry, but—"

"Angry doesn't even begin to cover it," Hadley cut him off, her voice cold and sharp. "You killed her, Julio. You were drunk, and you killed her, and you got away with it."

Julio flinched at her words. "It wasn't like that. The roads were icy, I—"

"Save it," Hadley spat. "I don't want to hear your excuses. Do you know what I wish, Julio? I wish it had been you instead of her. I wish you were the one who died that night."

The words hung in the air between them, harsh and unforgiving. Words she had always sworn she’d never say to him. Julio looked as if she had physically struck him, his face crumpling with pain.

"Hadley, I—"

"No," she said, her voice trembling with rage and grief. "I don't want to hear it. I don't want your apologies or your explanations. I want Ottlie back, and since that's impossible, I want you gone. Out of my sight, out of my life."

Without waiting for a response, Hadley slammed the door in his face. She leaned against it, sliding down to the floor as sobs wracked her body. The pain of losing Ottlie was as fresh as ever, compounded by the bitter knowledge that her killer—Ottlie's own brother—was free to live his life while Ottlie's had been cut tragically short.

Hadley didn't know if she would ever be able to forgive Julio. Right now, consumed by grief and anger, she wasn't sure she even wanted to try. All she knew was that the void Ottlie had left behind seemed insurmountable, and seeing Julio happy and alive only served as a cruel reminder of everything she had lost. As night fell over the Italian countryside, Hadley remained on the floor of her hotel room, alone with her memories and her pain, wishing desperately for a world where Ottlie was still by her side.

[ambitionslost]

Hadley Remington. Cocky. Daredevil. Formula one racer. FC: Madelyn Cline

[dropsofjupitcr]

BORN TO RACE.

The high-pitched whine of the small gasoline engine shattered the tranquil New England morning. On the sprawling emerald lawns of the Remington estate, a tiny figure in a flame-retardant suit and helmet tore across the grass, rear tires carving divots.

"Hadley! For heaven's sake, slow down!" Elizabeth Remington cried out in a tone more bemused than angry. Her immaculately coiffed chestnut hair swayed as she hurried after the fast-moving kart.

But Hadley was utterly deaf to her mother's protests. Clenching the sticky rubber wheel grips, she floored the accelerator, the kart's miniature engine screaming in defiance of its modest size. The green sea of lawn blurred into a featureless shade as she ripped from one side of the estate grounds to the other, slalom-weaving around ornamental topiaries and statuary.

In the kart's wake, thick twin trails of upturned soil and shredded grass trailed like the scorched remains of her priggish debutante upbringing.

As she rocketed across the terracotta tiled pathway, Hadley caught a glimpse of her father watching from the veranda, an amused smile playing across his aristocratic features. In that flash, she recognized the spark of pure, unbridled joy igniting within her young soul.

This was freedom. This was the wild release of inhibition she'd been subconsciously craving since birth.

Pitch ramps and hairpin turns improvised themselves into being as Hadley's newly-unlocked imagination blueprinted her own personal dreamscape. Bunny slopes became daunting gravity-sculpted downhills to tackle. Barriers waited to shave off mere inches of clearance in corners.

Richard had thought he was just indulging his daughter's whimsy, but Hadley sensed this gift ran deeper than he anticipated. It was her birthright - her destiny written in gasoline and scorched rubber rather than antiquated family legacies of privilege.

As the sun began descending over the carefully-manicured hedgerows, dusk's amber glow silhouetted Hadley still tearing across the ravaged landscape. Strands of her ponytail whipped behind her, freed from the constraints of decorum.

Fatigue was an amusing fiction as she pushed the tiny kart's engine to the threshold of mechanical rebellion. In that moment, Hadley recognized the awakening of her life's insatiable passion - leaving the world's predetermined lanes in a gasoline-scorched wake.

[dropsofjupitcr]

HADLEY REMINGTON TAG DROP.

◟ ⋆ i always believed it was some comforting lie › hadley remington !