The RubyWay Chronicles Part 7: Epiphany
Jul 21, 2016 22:52:43 GMT -5
Post by Ruby Tyler on Jul 21, 2016 22:52:43 GMT -5
July 14, 2016
At first, when Ruby heard the classic sounds of the Imperial Death March blaring from her phone, she rolled over in bed and ignored it. It was after mmidnight and the last thing she wanted to do was speak with her mother. Things had been awkward ever since Theresa Tyler had mentioned her impending wedding. There was nothing really wrong with Ruby’s future stepfather – he was a good man, a hard worker, and he loved his daughters and grandchildren more than anything in the world. And he clearly cared about her mother. The relationship had started while both of them were still married to other people though, and Ruby had never quite been able to forgive that, no matter how hard she tried. Her parents’ marriage had never been what anyone would call happy, but still.
After letting the phone go to voicemail twice, Ruby finally picked up the third time. Whatever her mother wanted to speak with her about, it was clearly important.
“Mom?”
“Ruby! What took you so long?”
“I'm on the East Coast, remember? It's after midnight here.”
“I'm sorry, I forgot about the time difference and I didn't mean to wake you.”
“Don't worry about it. What's on your mind?”
“I wanted to know if you knew of a good social worker or family lawyer out here.”
“What's going on? Is everything okay?”
“Unfortunately no. Your step - sorry, Greg’s oldest daughter -”
“You can call her my stepsister.”
“Fine. Your stepsister and her husband are separated and divorcing, and she needs better representation. Greg and I are both very worried about the situation. He's - the ex, not Greg - he's supposed to get the kids for half the week. He hasn't returned them yet.”
Ruby sat up abruptly. She'd met her stepsister's husband once or twice and she was not a fan. He was a dipshit who smoked too much weed and who had too little common sense, but he'd never come off as a truly bad guy until this story began to unfold. She listened as her mother told her all about the fights, the orders of protection they had filed against one another, the ex’s refusal to pay child support for their four children, and the way the kids were now clamoring to stay with their father when it was time for Ruby’s stepsister to pick them up.
“You've got to be fucking kidding me with this,” Ruby said once the story was over.
“Believe me, I wish I was.”
“Listen, I'll give you the name of my lawyer. He does estates primarily, but I know he works with a lot of family lawyers. I'm sure he can recommend someone.”
“Thank you, Ruby. I know you're not close to Greg or his girls, but…”
“Look, at the end of the day, it's about those kids. And I hate that Bill is doing this to them. They don't deserve this level of fuckery.”
“I know. It's been hard on your stepsister and on Greg.”
“And you, too. I know you love them. Take care of yourself, okay?”
“Isn't this a little bit pot and kettle?”
“Yeah, but I'm your daughter. I'm supposed to do stuff like this.”
“You always were more like me than you wanted to believe. Don't forget to take care of yourself too, Ruby. Go get some sleep, okay?”
“I will. You too, all right?”
“I'll try. I love you, Ruby.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
Once she hung up, Ruby laid back down in bed and stared at the ceiling. She done her best not to get attached to her stepfather or his family, but they were so important to her mother that it was hard to keep the wall up. She had thought that putting an entire country between herself and her mother’s new family would be enough, but the longer she laid in bed, the more clear her path became.
She needed to go back to California.
When her plane landed at LAX, Ruby wasted no time. She grabbed her duffel from baggage claim and rented the first car that they had available. While waiting for her flight to board, she’d had the time to do a little research on her stepsister’s soon to be ex-husband utilizing her connections in the area. The neighborhood he lived in wasn’t great, but he had just dropped the kids off at their respective schools and was sitting on his front stoop, smoking a blunt and scrolling through his phone like he wasn’t deliberately going out of his way to ruin someone’s life.It made her blood boil just to see him, but she had to keep control.
For now, at least.
“Hey, you got any more where that came from?” she called out, catching his attention from the other side of the rusting chain link fence around the bungalow.
“Depends. What are you looking for?”
“An eighth, if you got it.”
“Yeah. Come on inside.”
She pushed open the gate and followed him into the house. Once the door was closed, he turned to ask her something, but the words never got a chance to leave his lips. Immediately she was on him, punching and kicking like a woman possessed. He cried out for her to stop, asking what it was for, but Ruby didn’t care. As he fell to the stained linoleum floor, Ruby dropped down and pressed a knee into his chest, holding him down as she worked him over.
At a certain point, she stopped caring that it was her stepsister’s ex that she was beating up. In her mind, his face morphed into Kevin Hardaway’s, and Zero McHannon’s, and Tsurugi Kanemoto’s. Even Anthony Rother and his goon squad, Dan Herrera and Cordy Stevenson made their appearance, as did Ricky Valero and Luke Jackson. All these people who had frustrated her so much over the last eight months, and now she was finally getting the chance to vent her feelings toward them in a way that felt most natural to her. The blood on her hands didn’t bother her, not even when she finally felt peace descend upon her. Her victim’s face was bleeding and bruised, his nose definitely broken, his orbital bone possibly so. He was whimpering in pain, curling up into a fetal position as she got up.
“Maybe next time you’ll think a little harder before trying to fuck a whole family over. Get your shit together,” she spat, kicking him in the ribs once more for good measure as she exited and got back in her car.
She had a flight to catch to Manchester, after all.
At first, when Ruby heard the classic sounds of the Imperial Death March blaring from her phone, she rolled over in bed and ignored it. It was after mmidnight and the last thing she wanted to do was speak with her mother. Things had been awkward ever since Theresa Tyler had mentioned her impending wedding. There was nothing really wrong with Ruby’s future stepfather – he was a good man, a hard worker, and he loved his daughters and grandchildren more than anything in the world. And he clearly cared about her mother. The relationship had started while both of them were still married to other people though, and Ruby had never quite been able to forgive that, no matter how hard she tried. Her parents’ marriage had never been what anyone would call happy, but still.
After letting the phone go to voicemail twice, Ruby finally picked up the third time. Whatever her mother wanted to speak with her about, it was clearly important.
“Mom?”
“Ruby! What took you so long?”
“I'm on the East Coast, remember? It's after midnight here.”
“I'm sorry, I forgot about the time difference and I didn't mean to wake you.”
“Don't worry about it. What's on your mind?”
“I wanted to know if you knew of a good social worker or family lawyer out here.”
“What's going on? Is everything okay?”
“Unfortunately no. Your step - sorry, Greg’s oldest daughter -”
“You can call her my stepsister.”
“Fine. Your stepsister and her husband are separated and divorcing, and she needs better representation. Greg and I are both very worried about the situation. He's - the ex, not Greg - he's supposed to get the kids for half the week. He hasn't returned them yet.”
Ruby sat up abruptly. She'd met her stepsister's husband once or twice and she was not a fan. He was a dipshit who smoked too much weed and who had too little common sense, but he'd never come off as a truly bad guy until this story began to unfold. She listened as her mother told her all about the fights, the orders of protection they had filed against one another, the ex’s refusal to pay child support for their four children, and the way the kids were now clamoring to stay with their father when it was time for Ruby’s stepsister to pick them up.
“You've got to be fucking kidding me with this,” Ruby said once the story was over.
“Believe me, I wish I was.”
“Listen, I'll give you the name of my lawyer. He does estates primarily, but I know he works with a lot of family lawyers. I'm sure he can recommend someone.”
“Thank you, Ruby. I know you're not close to Greg or his girls, but…”
“Look, at the end of the day, it's about those kids. And I hate that Bill is doing this to them. They don't deserve this level of fuckery.”
“I know. It's been hard on your stepsister and on Greg.”
“And you, too. I know you love them. Take care of yourself, okay?”
“Isn't this a little bit pot and kettle?”
“Yeah, but I'm your daughter. I'm supposed to do stuff like this.”
“You always were more like me than you wanted to believe. Don't forget to take care of yourself too, Ruby. Go get some sleep, okay?”
“I will. You too, all right?”
“I'll try. I love you, Ruby.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
Once she hung up, Ruby laid back down in bed and stared at the ceiling. She done her best not to get attached to her stepfather or his family, but they were so important to her mother that it was hard to keep the wall up. She had thought that putting an entire country between herself and her mother’s new family would be enough, but the longer she laid in bed, the more clear her path became.
She needed to go back to California.
When her plane landed at LAX, Ruby wasted no time. She grabbed her duffel from baggage claim and rented the first car that they had available. While waiting for her flight to board, she’d had the time to do a little research on her stepsister’s soon to be ex-husband utilizing her connections in the area. The neighborhood he lived in wasn’t great, but he had just dropped the kids off at their respective schools and was sitting on his front stoop, smoking a blunt and scrolling through his phone like he wasn’t deliberately going out of his way to ruin someone’s life.It made her blood boil just to see him, but she had to keep control.
For now, at least.
“Hey, you got any more where that came from?” she called out, catching his attention from the other side of the rusting chain link fence around the bungalow.
“Depends. What are you looking for?”
“An eighth, if you got it.”
“Yeah. Come on inside.”
She pushed open the gate and followed him into the house. Once the door was closed, he turned to ask her something, but the words never got a chance to leave his lips. Immediately she was on him, punching and kicking like a woman possessed. He cried out for her to stop, asking what it was for, but Ruby didn’t care. As he fell to the stained linoleum floor, Ruby dropped down and pressed a knee into his chest, holding him down as she worked him over.
At a certain point, she stopped caring that it was her stepsister’s ex that she was beating up. In her mind, his face morphed into Kevin Hardaway’s, and Zero McHannon’s, and Tsurugi Kanemoto’s. Even Anthony Rother and his goon squad, Dan Herrera and Cordy Stevenson made their appearance, as did Ricky Valero and Luke Jackson. All these people who had frustrated her so much over the last eight months, and now she was finally getting the chance to vent her feelings toward them in a way that felt most natural to her. The blood on her hands didn’t bother her, not even when she finally felt peace descend upon her. Her victim’s face was bleeding and bruised, his nose definitely broken, his orbital bone possibly so. He was whimpering in pain, curling up into a fetal position as she got up.
“Maybe next time you’ll think a little harder before trying to fuck a whole family over. Get your shit together,” she spat, kicking him in the ribs once more for good measure as she exited and got back in her car.
She had a flight to catch to Manchester, after all.
So. Nox Sports. The guys who haven’t been seen since the end of Dynamic Duos… or the beginning, rather.
Well, I’m sorry that your reappearance has to involve Hardaway and I. Because we’re on a mission here and you two? You’re just a speed bump in the middle of our road to tag team gold. But if this is what we have to deal with in order to get what we want, then so be it. I’m not here to be overlooked anymore. I’m not here to be mocked and shat upon for the company I came from. I’m proud of what I did there. I’m proud of the lengths I went to in order to keep hold of what was mine.
When I first got here, I was afraid to go to those lengths again. I figured hey, I’d just hang out and work and make my money and go back to my grad school classes with a couple extra bruises and maybe a new funny story from the locker room to tell. But that’s not the way to get ahead here. I’ve learned.
You get ahead here by not giving a shit about anyone other than yourself and maybe your tag partner, if you have one. You do whatever it takes in order to get what you want and you hold onto it with every breath in your body. You claim that everyone else around you is the worst scum of the earth, that you’re the only one with talent worth a damn in this company.
Take a look at the tapes sometime. Look at what Hardaway and I did to one another all last year and the levels of violence we reached while fighting one another.
Now take a minute to think that if we’re willing to do that to one another… what fucking chance do you two have?
My advice? Get the hell out of our way.
Because these hunters have a prize in our sights, and we’ll stop at nothing to get it.
Deuces, bitches.