The RubyWay Chronicles - Part 8.1 - The Elephant in the Room
Aug 3, 2016 15:32:56 GMT -5
Post by Kevin Hardaway on Aug 3, 2016 15:32:56 GMT -5
Back in Vegas, here I am. It’s been pretty much over a year since I’ve been back in Sin City and mannnn...do I have a lot of sins on my plate. But I’m not here to confess or cleanse anything of the sort. I know what type of person I am in this world, and that’s the way it’s going to stay. I’ve had no problems whatsoever with the way I am. Maybe that’s why everybody sees me as this perpetual scumbag who just wishes he’d fuck Ruby and get it over with. Fucking perverts. But alas, this is not why I’m here, although there’s an elephant in the room just trying to rear it’s ugly head, but whatever.
No, I’m here because of a petty little squabble right now to The Usual Suspects...two people who just don’t know when to say quit. Actually, I still haven’t heard a peep from them since they came back. This mostly has to do with one Anthony Rother, the backbone of the two, the one who speaks for them, even if both Suspects disagree on whatever mullarkey is coming out of his mouth.
You see, ever since they decided to come back, it’s been nothing but bickering and bitching and moaning. He’s upset that he’s walked the Usual Suspects into a different era in FGA. A different place than what it was 3 years ago when they were on top of the world. I should know, I was here, I was in the same boat as you were when I resigned to the company at the beginning of the year. And I’m aware of the fact that it’s a much different place than when I decided to jump that guardrail as a member of the Pro-Wrestling FRONTIER roster. But you know what? I don’t wallow in my own pity. I’ve been doing something about it. Or at the very least, trying to do something about it.
Because me and Ruby are trying to lay our claim here that you know what...we’re actually a well-deserved team. We’re not two people that everybody likes to write stories about. We’ve been training every single day ever since we decided that this was going to be our future going forward. Do we like it? Of course not...you’ve clearly met us and so have the entire world. But argue with the fact that when we can actually stay on the same page and work together as a coherent team, that we’re one of the most dangerous tag teams in the world today, and you don’t need titles or accomplishments to see that.
And I understand that it ticks you off, Rother. So much so, that you sent your little bitches to take care of us. And when that didn’t do the trick, you tried laying a hand on Ruby, to which you got your teeth knocked out. Sure, your guys got the W, but who’s the one scared out of his wits right now, trying to back out of anything when you even get close to her? I say we’re doing a pretty good job of that, to be quite honest. But now we have to face your S&M slaves again and you have to be handcuffed to the corner like...wow, I didn’t mean to come so close to THAT comparison. That’s creepy.
But here I am now, trying to pretty much play babysitter to a petulant child who doesn’t need looked at or taken care of because she had to put her hands on poor ol’ Mr. Rother. Why am I talking like I’m defending him? Hell no I’m not defending Rother...he deserved to get slugged in the face by Ruby. I just don’t condone it. Why? Because we have other issues to attend to and we don’t need this poor sap of a human being breathing down our necks to make sure we don’t see tomorrow morning or be wasted out of a payday to make sure his medical bills are in order. I’m trying to make a living and I’m trying to make damn sure that we walk out of Anaheim, California as the FGA World Tag Team Champions. And I know Ruby is as well...we may disagree on a lot of things, but that’s not one of them, at least not in my eyes.
But you know what, I’ve said it over and over again to the point where I’m sounding redundant and it’s starting to bother me just a scoch. So you know what I’m going to do? I’m just going to have Ruby explain everything for me and explain her side of the story. She was going to anyways whether you like it or not, Rother.
As for me...I’ll see you all on Saturday.
Deuces.
=============================
Ah, another relaxing night in the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. Or College Park. Or wherever in between Ruby Tyler’s cabin is at. How the hell should we know, we’re not a GPS for crying out loud. But it is a quiet night in the household. A hot, but beautiful day outside with not a cloud in sight, Ruby in the library as usual doing her studying, and Kevin in her house eating her food. Well actually, in this case, he paid for his share. She was ordering a pizza for herself and asked him what he wanted on his half. The confusion on his face told the entire story, really.
Ruby Tyler: “Oh god, did I really just ask you that?”
Kevin Hardaway: “Yeah...I’m creeped out too.”
She passed it off though and still asked him, and even he told her that he would pay for half of it at least and never speak of the ordeal again.
But that’s not where this story begins. Actually, it begins last year. But for right now, we’ll get back to it. It’s at least a couple hours after the both of them ate and bickered...you know, the usual between the two. Ruby was in her library studying as we said, and Kevin was on the couch watching the television. No game on tonight, so she didn’t have to use her trick of trying to throw paper balls at his head to try and get him to move, but...there was a part of her that kind of missed that tonight. The screaming got to her at times, but hearing him cheer his favorite team on was kind of refreshing. It showed that throughout this entire ordeal and throughout them trying to find a way to rid the world of this evil that he unleashed...he still had his other side of just trying to be a normal human being. It showed when she was at his house for dinner a few weeks ago.
So there was kind of an odd silence tonight.
Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum, Kevin was just sitting on the couch, kind of a potato in this case, not really caring about anything else going on. Why he would sit on the same couch as he did when he had that dream that Angie was sitting next to him trying to talk to him and reason with him that Ruby should know about the dreams and the visions that he’s been having lately of his dead wife, but...he still didn’t open his mouth about it. He lived through a life of trying not to say “no” and rejection and god knows what else. If Ruby found out that Kevin was talking to his dead wife, all hell would rain down upon them.
He couldn’t let her go through with that, even with all on her plate as it was. So he just bit his lip, and powered through it. It was the best that he could do and he could take out his frustration in training. Easy does it.
And right now, whatever was on the television was not worth it, it was only background noise to static everything out in his head at the moment. Instead, he was on his phone, looking at whatever was going on with Twitter and elsewhere. As he was scrolling through his feed, looking at the off-the-wall comments being made about whatever, something caught his eye. A random tweet. He shook his head and just continued to scroll down. It had to be an hallucination again. Then another tweet. And another. And another. All saying the same thing.
Wait a minute.
He looked at the calendar on his phone and went through the FGA calendar. Yeah, it would be great if he knew where he was traveling AHEAD of time, but his life and whatever ails you have been clouding his head to the point that every day just started to blur together. He looked at the upcoming tour dates and saw it…
FGA Vertigo #19 - 08.06.16
Orleans Arena
Las Vegas, NV.
Why does that seem familiar?
Then it came crashing down through his head.
The bar. The dagger knife. The hotel. The movie theater. The woods.
He let out a weird and random noise. He tried to keep it to himself, but it came out louder than he intended it to. Obviously he didn’t want to freak out in front of Ruby, lord help us if she finds out about this, but it all came flooding back so quickly that he couldn’t contain it.
Ruby Tyler: “What in the hell are you going on about?”
He throws her his phone.
Kevin Hardaway: “The next Vertigo. It’s in Vegas.”
Ruby Tyler: “Anddddddd?”
Kevin Hardaway: “Look at the date?”
Ruby sighed and looked at his phone to see what on earth her tag partner was talking about, and when she saw the date her stomach dropped. One year ago almost to the day, their spark had turned into a flame outside a dive bar on the outskirts of town. She could still remember the scrape of his stubble against her face and the way he’d gripped her leg as he lifted it around his waist, hard enough to bruise. But as she looked at the phone, her face remained still and she shrugged.
Ruby Tyler: So? It’s one year since our Chairshot Survival match. That have some kind of special meaning?
He could see it in her face, that cold and stilted look that she always seems to have when she tries to backpedal. He’s pretty much known her for a year and he could pick up on these emotions coming across. He knew hook, line, and sinker that she was playing him because she didn’t want to talk about it. And neither did he. But it was a subject that had to be brought up, mostly just because of the world’s worst coincidence happening to the both of them. How in the unholy hell did this happen? The fact that this incident happened almost a year ago and the two, in the midst of working on trying to become champions, have to go back to the town that started it all.
Started all the rumors, the fan fiction, everything that they wanted to keep away.
He wanted to bring it up, but bringing it up meant he would had to tell her about what was going on.
Subtle maybe the way to do it?
Kevin Hardaway: Well...it was one year ago that you beat the shit out of me. I honestly don’t think that without the match and the moments that preceded it, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking.
How in the fuck was THAT subtle?
Ruby Tyler: I could’ve lived without you… you know. Shoving tacks in my mouth and then superkicking me in the jaw.
And kissing her in the middle of the ring. Which lead to her doing the same to him later, while he was zip-tied to a chair and she was beating him with brass knuckles. That was why she tried to avoid thinking about the whole mess whenever it popped into her head - which was more often than she cared to admit. No one had touched her outside a wrestling ring in a year, and it was starting to drive her crazy.
That had to be the explanation for why she couldn’t seem to get him off her mind lately.
Ruby Tyler: But, whatever. Bygones, you know? Let’s just drop it and focus on eating pizza and watching television like we’re at least sort of normal.
Kevin Hardaway: How are we even normal? If your definition of “normal” involves us almost fighting to the death and beating each other up because it makes you feel better, than I have been doing this for longer than I realize.
Suddenly, the voices in his head started to grow louder, started to get louder. Angie was in his head and in a way, trying to get him to blurt it out. He felt light-headed, fuzzy...like he remembered back in the days of being with that crazy bitch and her island of misfit toys. Like he was being oppressed again, but this time, by his own dead fucking wife. He tried fighting it. He tried so damn hard, even with Ruby just standing there, looking at him like she was looking at him for an eternity, even though it was only for seconds. Then, it just all came out. He was done being subtle, and he was done trying. If it shut her the hell up, then why the hell not? It would shut up everybody if he just told her.
Kevin Hardaway: You know what...I can’t. I just can’t. Not anymore. It’s just been brewing and brewing and brewing. I can’t escape the fact that NOW, RIGHT NOW, there’s been an elephant in this very house. He’s been here so long that he has his own bed, and he drinks his own imported wine. This...fucking elephant in the room that I...no, WE need to kick out because he’s been stealing the cable from us and using it to his own free will. Enough is enough, dammit. We need to talk about Vegas.
Did...did that really just come out of his mouth?
For a moment, Ruby just stared at the man in her living room as if he were a stranger. In a way, she wished he still was, but over the course of the last year and a half they had come to understand one another better than anyone else.
Ruby Tyler: We’ve gone a year without talking about what happened in Vegas. At this point I’ve gotten used to the elephant in the house. And frankly, I like him better because he’s less likely to raid my fridge and he’s much quieter. If it bothers you so much, then just leave and we’ll only spend time together when we have to get ready for matches. Which we do need to do, in case you forgot that we’re going to Vegas to beat the hell out of the Suspects.
Kevin Hardaway: I never forgot about the Suspects, I just didn’t realize that we were doing it in that city. That’s all. Just...this whole thing has been bugging the shit out of me, and don’t even lie to me that it’s not bugging you either, because even though in the year and a half that we’ve been in each other’s lives, we’ve been mostly fighting and screaming at one another, we both know our ins and outs. You know me more than you like to admit, and guess what...I do too. Yeah, we still have our secrets and that’s fine by me. You have your life and your personal issues and all of that stuff with Tsurugi and Masato and...and I have my issues.
He wanted to say her name, but...he was still fighting on the inside to tell Ruby about Angie.
It was hard to keep from flinching when he said her brothers’ names. Even he could see the changes that had come over Tsurugi in the ring, if he bothered to watch HELL. She couldn’t remember if her tag partner paid attention to the Tijuana promotion, but right now, it didn’t matter that much.
Ruby Tyler: Look, I don’t know what you want me to say. It was a thing that happened, and we agreed that we were never going to talk about it again. And then it happened again and we still didn’t talk about it. What we have now is pretty good. Why risk ruining it by talking about something that’s never going to happen again?
Kevin Hardaway: I...I don’t know. I don’t even know why I brought it up in the first place to begin with, so...yeah, I’m sorry about that and I’m sorry that I freaked out.
As he was saying this, he saw something in the corner of his eye that caught his attention. She couldn’t have been watching this conversation the entire time but he tries to change his direction without Ruby noticing...trying and sort of failing at it as she looks on confused at what he’s even looking at in the first place. She sees nothing, but he sees everything. He sees Angie looking on in the distance, looking very very different than how he saw her the last time. She looks less angelic and more...demonic if you will. Bad comparison, but the moral is that she doesn’t look like the person who fell in love with this guy and risked her life to save his.
Ruby just keeps looking on, whether or not she wants to say something to ease the tension, or say something to figure out what’s going on, or just chalk it up to her tag partner being nothing more than an asshole as he always is.
Ruby Tyler: ...What are you looking at?
She follows his gaze toward the other side of the room, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. But she knows him well enough to know that something is wrong, and it worries her deeply.
Ruby Tyler: Kevin, c’mon. Answer me.
As soon she said his name, he knew her tone was more relaxed. Sure, she was worried beyond her control, but usually when she called him by his name, he knew she was telling the truth or concerned or anything else. That was how they connected. Mostly because they rarely called each other by their actual names, something that started all the way back at the hotel in Vegas one year ago.
He tries to look again and this time, he can get a clear view of if he’s actually seeing her or he’s just losing his mind, and he does indeed see her. And Ruby is waiting for an answer, so there’s no other possible way to explain this. He wanted to try and secretly tell her by whispering, just in case if he told her the truth, that she would reign down bloody Hell on this house, but in his own fucked-up way, he just tells her.
Kevin Hardaway: I see her.
Ruby Tyler: See who?
He takes a deep breath and utters out a name that Ruby wasn’t prepared to hear in her entire life.
Kevin Hardaway: Angie.
Whatever answer Ruby had been expecting, it was not that. She knew his wife’s name, of course, but this was the first time he had ever actually spoken it to her. And now apparently her tag partner’s wife’s ghost was sitting in her living room with them.
Ruby Tyler: You know, considering this is my house and all, the least she could do is show herself to both of us. Does she want something or is she just doing what you do and hanging out being a nuisance?
Technically, she’s correct in that Angie’s being a nuisance, but not in the way she would like to believe.
Kevin Hardaway: She’s a nuisance. But not just here...she’s been following me. Remember my trip to England for FRONTIER? She was there. That was actually the first time she started to show up. And ever since then, she’s been...next to me, if you will. In the conversation of us. There’s been times where I’ve tried to ignore it. Like...like our dinner with Kim a few weeks ago, but ever since then, she’s been in my head and I can’t control it. Do you think I enjoy this?
Ruby Tyler: Based on your little rant there just now? I’m gonna go with no. But then again, most people who are haunted tend not to enjoy it. So your dead wife has been haunting you for three months and you’re only just now telling me this? Could’ve saved me a lot of time and recording equipment if you’d just said something. Now, though, the question is… do you want her to go away or do you want her to stay?
Even years after her death, Ruby knew that Kevin still loved his wife deeply, so it left her wondering what his answer was going to be. She didn’t particularly like the idea of some ghost following her and her partner around any more than she liked the effect it was having on him. It was too much like the days when they’d first met, when his demons were getting the best of him and she’d nearly ended up dead because of it. She put her hands on her hips and glared at the spot that Kevin was focusing on.
He was looking at Ruby and then back at Angie. Back at Ruby and back at Angie. A million and one thoughts ran through his head, not sure on what the hell to do. Yeah, he wanted her to stay obviously, he loved her like no other man has. She was the one who told him to fight all those years ago. But that was in the past, and this is the present. And all he could think about was trying to protect himself. His daughter. Ruby. Thoughts and feelings are great, but sometimes you need to forget about them and move on and enjoy things for what they are.
That’s why he reaches for the shotgun near the door that’s filled with rock salt shells just for occasions like this, we guess?
Kevin Hardaway: I...I just can’t.
He points the shotgun up to her and with a single tear down his cheek, closes his eyes tightly and lets out a near primal scream of terror and absolution, pulling the trigger and firing the rock salt into his wife’s chest as the salt fires into the wall and leaves a mark as she disappears in a cloud of black smoke. With one fail swoop, Kevin drops the shotgun and just falls to his knees in the middle of the living room as Ruby watches on, staring at him in shock.
TO BE CONTINUED...
No, I’m here because of a petty little squabble right now to The Usual Suspects...two people who just don’t know when to say quit. Actually, I still haven’t heard a peep from them since they came back. This mostly has to do with one Anthony Rother, the backbone of the two, the one who speaks for them, even if both Suspects disagree on whatever mullarkey is coming out of his mouth.
You see, ever since they decided to come back, it’s been nothing but bickering and bitching and moaning. He’s upset that he’s walked the Usual Suspects into a different era in FGA. A different place than what it was 3 years ago when they were on top of the world. I should know, I was here, I was in the same boat as you were when I resigned to the company at the beginning of the year. And I’m aware of the fact that it’s a much different place than when I decided to jump that guardrail as a member of the Pro-Wrestling FRONTIER roster. But you know what? I don’t wallow in my own pity. I’ve been doing something about it. Or at the very least, trying to do something about it.
Because me and Ruby are trying to lay our claim here that you know what...we’re actually a well-deserved team. We’re not two people that everybody likes to write stories about. We’ve been training every single day ever since we decided that this was going to be our future going forward. Do we like it? Of course not...you’ve clearly met us and so have the entire world. But argue with the fact that when we can actually stay on the same page and work together as a coherent team, that we’re one of the most dangerous tag teams in the world today, and you don’t need titles or accomplishments to see that.
And I understand that it ticks you off, Rother. So much so, that you sent your little bitches to take care of us. And when that didn’t do the trick, you tried laying a hand on Ruby, to which you got your teeth knocked out. Sure, your guys got the W, but who’s the one scared out of his wits right now, trying to back out of anything when you even get close to her? I say we’re doing a pretty good job of that, to be quite honest. But now we have to face your S&M slaves again and you have to be handcuffed to the corner like...wow, I didn’t mean to come so close to THAT comparison. That’s creepy.
But here I am now, trying to pretty much play babysitter to a petulant child who doesn’t need looked at or taken care of because she had to put her hands on poor ol’ Mr. Rother. Why am I talking like I’m defending him? Hell no I’m not defending Rother...he deserved to get slugged in the face by Ruby. I just don’t condone it. Why? Because we have other issues to attend to and we don’t need this poor sap of a human being breathing down our necks to make sure we don’t see tomorrow morning or be wasted out of a payday to make sure his medical bills are in order. I’m trying to make a living and I’m trying to make damn sure that we walk out of Anaheim, California as the FGA World Tag Team Champions. And I know Ruby is as well...we may disagree on a lot of things, but that’s not one of them, at least not in my eyes.
But you know what, I’ve said it over and over again to the point where I’m sounding redundant and it’s starting to bother me just a scoch. So you know what I’m going to do? I’m just going to have Ruby explain everything for me and explain her side of the story. She was going to anyways whether you like it or not, Rother.
As for me...I’ll see you all on Saturday.
Deuces.
=============================
Ah, another relaxing night in the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. Or College Park. Or wherever in between Ruby Tyler’s cabin is at. How the hell should we know, we’re not a GPS for crying out loud. But it is a quiet night in the household. A hot, but beautiful day outside with not a cloud in sight, Ruby in the library as usual doing her studying, and Kevin in her house eating her food. Well actually, in this case, he paid for his share. She was ordering a pizza for herself and asked him what he wanted on his half. The confusion on his face told the entire story, really.
Ruby Tyler: “Oh god, did I really just ask you that?”
Kevin Hardaway: “Yeah...I’m creeped out too.”
She passed it off though and still asked him, and even he told her that he would pay for half of it at least and never speak of the ordeal again.
But that’s not where this story begins. Actually, it begins last year. But for right now, we’ll get back to it. It’s at least a couple hours after the both of them ate and bickered...you know, the usual between the two. Ruby was in her library studying as we said, and Kevin was on the couch watching the television. No game on tonight, so she didn’t have to use her trick of trying to throw paper balls at his head to try and get him to move, but...there was a part of her that kind of missed that tonight. The screaming got to her at times, but hearing him cheer his favorite team on was kind of refreshing. It showed that throughout this entire ordeal and throughout them trying to find a way to rid the world of this evil that he unleashed...he still had his other side of just trying to be a normal human being. It showed when she was at his house for dinner a few weeks ago.
So there was kind of an odd silence tonight.
Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum, Kevin was just sitting on the couch, kind of a potato in this case, not really caring about anything else going on. Why he would sit on the same couch as he did when he had that dream that Angie was sitting next to him trying to talk to him and reason with him that Ruby should know about the dreams and the visions that he’s been having lately of his dead wife, but...he still didn’t open his mouth about it. He lived through a life of trying not to say “no” and rejection and god knows what else. If Ruby found out that Kevin was talking to his dead wife, all hell would rain down upon them.
He couldn’t let her go through with that, even with all on her plate as it was. So he just bit his lip, and powered through it. It was the best that he could do and he could take out his frustration in training. Easy does it.
And right now, whatever was on the television was not worth it, it was only background noise to static everything out in his head at the moment. Instead, he was on his phone, looking at whatever was going on with Twitter and elsewhere. As he was scrolling through his feed, looking at the off-the-wall comments being made about whatever, something caught his eye. A random tweet. He shook his head and just continued to scroll down. It had to be an hallucination again. Then another tweet. And another. And another. All saying the same thing.
Wait a minute.
He looked at the calendar on his phone and went through the FGA calendar. Yeah, it would be great if he knew where he was traveling AHEAD of time, but his life and whatever ails you have been clouding his head to the point that every day just started to blur together. He looked at the upcoming tour dates and saw it…
FGA Vertigo #19 - 08.06.16
Orleans Arena
Las Vegas, NV.
Why does that seem familiar?
Then it came crashing down through his head.
The bar. The dagger knife. The hotel. The movie theater. The woods.
He let out a weird and random noise. He tried to keep it to himself, but it came out louder than he intended it to. Obviously he didn’t want to freak out in front of Ruby, lord help us if she finds out about this, but it all came flooding back so quickly that he couldn’t contain it.
Ruby Tyler: “What in the hell are you going on about?”
He throws her his phone.
Kevin Hardaway: “The next Vertigo. It’s in Vegas.”
Ruby Tyler: “Anddddddd?”
Kevin Hardaway: “Look at the date?”
Ruby sighed and looked at his phone to see what on earth her tag partner was talking about, and when she saw the date her stomach dropped. One year ago almost to the day, their spark had turned into a flame outside a dive bar on the outskirts of town. She could still remember the scrape of his stubble against her face and the way he’d gripped her leg as he lifted it around his waist, hard enough to bruise. But as she looked at the phone, her face remained still and she shrugged.
Ruby Tyler: So? It’s one year since our Chairshot Survival match. That have some kind of special meaning?
He could see it in her face, that cold and stilted look that she always seems to have when she tries to backpedal. He’s pretty much known her for a year and he could pick up on these emotions coming across. He knew hook, line, and sinker that she was playing him because she didn’t want to talk about it. And neither did he. But it was a subject that had to be brought up, mostly just because of the world’s worst coincidence happening to the both of them. How in the unholy hell did this happen? The fact that this incident happened almost a year ago and the two, in the midst of working on trying to become champions, have to go back to the town that started it all.
Started all the rumors, the fan fiction, everything that they wanted to keep away.
He wanted to bring it up, but bringing it up meant he would had to tell her about what was going on.
Subtle maybe the way to do it?
Kevin Hardaway: Well...it was one year ago that you beat the shit out of me. I honestly don’t think that without the match and the moments that preceded it, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking.
How in the fuck was THAT subtle?
Ruby Tyler: I could’ve lived without you… you know. Shoving tacks in my mouth and then superkicking me in the jaw.
And kissing her in the middle of the ring. Which lead to her doing the same to him later, while he was zip-tied to a chair and she was beating him with brass knuckles. That was why she tried to avoid thinking about the whole mess whenever it popped into her head - which was more often than she cared to admit. No one had touched her outside a wrestling ring in a year, and it was starting to drive her crazy.
That had to be the explanation for why she couldn’t seem to get him off her mind lately.
Ruby Tyler: But, whatever. Bygones, you know? Let’s just drop it and focus on eating pizza and watching television like we’re at least sort of normal.
Kevin Hardaway: How are we even normal? If your definition of “normal” involves us almost fighting to the death and beating each other up because it makes you feel better, than I have been doing this for longer than I realize.
Suddenly, the voices in his head started to grow louder, started to get louder. Angie was in his head and in a way, trying to get him to blurt it out. He felt light-headed, fuzzy...like he remembered back in the days of being with that crazy bitch and her island of misfit toys. Like he was being oppressed again, but this time, by his own dead fucking wife. He tried fighting it. He tried so damn hard, even with Ruby just standing there, looking at him like she was looking at him for an eternity, even though it was only for seconds. Then, it just all came out. He was done being subtle, and he was done trying. If it shut her the hell up, then why the hell not? It would shut up everybody if he just told her.
Kevin Hardaway: You know what...I can’t. I just can’t. Not anymore. It’s just been brewing and brewing and brewing. I can’t escape the fact that NOW, RIGHT NOW, there’s been an elephant in this very house. He’s been here so long that he has his own bed, and he drinks his own imported wine. This...fucking elephant in the room that I...no, WE need to kick out because he’s been stealing the cable from us and using it to his own free will. Enough is enough, dammit. We need to talk about Vegas.
Did...did that really just come out of his mouth?
For a moment, Ruby just stared at the man in her living room as if he were a stranger. In a way, she wished he still was, but over the course of the last year and a half they had come to understand one another better than anyone else.
Ruby Tyler: We’ve gone a year without talking about what happened in Vegas. At this point I’ve gotten used to the elephant in the house. And frankly, I like him better because he’s less likely to raid my fridge and he’s much quieter. If it bothers you so much, then just leave and we’ll only spend time together when we have to get ready for matches. Which we do need to do, in case you forgot that we’re going to Vegas to beat the hell out of the Suspects.
Kevin Hardaway: I never forgot about the Suspects, I just didn’t realize that we were doing it in that city. That’s all. Just...this whole thing has been bugging the shit out of me, and don’t even lie to me that it’s not bugging you either, because even though in the year and a half that we’ve been in each other’s lives, we’ve been mostly fighting and screaming at one another, we both know our ins and outs. You know me more than you like to admit, and guess what...I do too. Yeah, we still have our secrets and that’s fine by me. You have your life and your personal issues and all of that stuff with Tsurugi and Masato and...and I have my issues.
He wanted to say her name, but...he was still fighting on the inside to tell Ruby about Angie.
It was hard to keep from flinching when he said her brothers’ names. Even he could see the changes that had come over Tsurugi in the ring, if he bothered to watch HELL. She couldn’t remember if her tag partner paid attention to the Tijuana promotion, but right now, it didn’t matter that much.
Ruby Tyler: Look, I don’t know what you want me to say. It was a thing that happened, and we agreed that we were never going to talk about it again. And then it happened again and we still didn’t talk about it. What we have now is pretty good. Why risk ruining it by talking about something that’s never going to happen again?
Kevin Hardaway: I...I don’t know. I don’t even know why I brought it up in the first place to begin with, so...yeah, I’m sorry about that and I’m sorry that I freaked out.
As he was saying this, he saw something in the corner of his eye that caught his attention. She couldn’t have been watching this conversation the entire time but he tries to change his direction without Ruby noticing...trying and sort of failing at it as she looks on confused at what he’s even looking at in the first place. She sees nothing, but he sees everything. He sees Angie looking on in the distance, looking very very different than how he saw her the last time. She looks less angelic and more...demonic if you will. Bad comparison, but the moral is that she doesn’t look like the person who fell in love with this guy and risked her life to save his.
Ruby just keeps looking on, whether or not she wants to say something to ease the tension, or say something to figure out what’s going on, or just chalk it up to her tag partner being nothing more than an asshole as he always is.
Ruby Tyler: ...What are you looking at?
She follows his gaze toward the other side of the room, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. But she knows him well enough to know that something is wrong, and it worries her deeply.
Ruby Tyler: Kevin, c’mon. Answer me.
As soon she said his name, he knew her tone was more relaxed. Sure, she was worried beyond her control, but usually when she called him by his name, he knew she was telling the truth or concerned or anything else. That was how they connected. Mostly because they rarely called each other by their actual names, something that started all the way back at the hotel in Vegas one year ago.
He tries to look again and this time, he can get a clear view of if he’s actually seeing her or he’s just losing his mind, and he does indeed see her. And Ruby is waiting for an answer, so there’s no other possible way to explain this. He wanted to try and secretly tell her by whispering, just in case if he told her the truth, that she would reign down bloody Hell on this house, but in his own fucked-up way, he just tells her.
Kevin Hardaway: I see her.
Ruby Tyler: See who?
He takes a deep breath and utters out a name that Ruby wasn’t prepared to hear in her entire life.
Kevin Hardaway: Angie.
Whatever answer Ruby had been expecting, it was not that. She knew his wife’s name, of course, but this was the first time he had ever actually spoken it to her. And now apparently her tag partner’s wife’s ghost was sitting in her living room with them.
Ruby Tyler: You know, considering this is my house and all, the least she could do is show herself to both of us. Does she want something or is she just doing what you do and hanging out being a nuisance?
Technically, she’s correct in that Angie’s being a nuisance, but not in the way she would like to believe.
Kevin Hardaway: She’s a nuisance. But not just here...she’s been following me. Remember my trip to England for FRONTIER? She was there. That was actually the first time she started to show up. And ever since then, she’s been...next to me, if you will. In the conversation of us. There’s been times where I’ve tried to ignore it. Like...like our dinner with Kim a few weeks ago, but ever since then, she’s been in my head and I can’t control it. Do you think I enjoy this?
Ruby Tyler: Based on your little rant there just now? I’m gonna go with no. But then again, most people who are haunted tend not to enjoy it. So your dead wife has been haunting you for three months and you’re only just now telling me this? Could’ve saved me a lot of time and recording equipment if you’d just said something. Now, though, the question is… do you want her to go away or do you want her to stay?
Even years after her death, Ruby knew that Kevin still loved his wife deeply, so it left her wondering what his answer was going to be. She didn’t particularly like the idea of some ghost following her and her partner around any more than she liked the effect it was having on him. It was too much like the days when they’d first met, when his demons were getting the best of him and she’d nearly ended up dead because of it. She put her hands on her hips and glared at the spot that Kevin was focusing on.
He was looking at Ruby and then back at Angie. Back at Ruby and back at Angie. A million and one thoughts ran through his head, not sure on what the hell to do. Yeah, he wanted her to stay obviously, he loved her like no other man has. She was the one who told him to fight all those years ago. But that was in the past, and this is the present. And all he could think about was trying to protect himself. His daughter. Ruby. Thoughts and feelings are great, but sometimes you need to forget about them and move on and enjoy things for what they are.
That’s why he reaches for the shotgun near the door that’s filled with rock salt shells just for occasions like this, we guess?
Kevin Hardaway: I...I just can’t.
He points the shotgun up to her and with a single tear down his cheek, closes his eyes tightly and lets out a near primal scream of terror and absolution, pulling the trigger and firing the rock salt into his wife’s chest as the salt fires into the wall and leaves a mark as she disappears in a cloud of black smoke. With one fail swoop, Kevin drops the shotgun and just falls to his knees in the middle of the living room as Ruby watches on, staring at him in shock.
TO BE CONTINUED...
