PROLOGUE
August, 2003: Raleigh, North Carolina
The thought of the fight Valerie had incurred with Tyler last night continued to send shivers down her spine. The screaming and yelling that had erupted from Tyler's over-sized mouth made her cringe in fear at just the thought of enduring the brutal attack again. She remembered every hurtful and menacing word as if her were there in front of her reciting his rant once again. Calling her names like, "Whore, pussy,' and the most derogatory of them all, "cunt," just to demean and belittle her. The worst part of it all was that it worked. This wasn't their first fight. They usually had one about once a week or so, and most coincidentally on Wednesday night. She knew why he would pick this fight. He was jealous and typically as drunk as a frat brother on Spring Break in Tihajuana. He always chose Wednesday because it was the night before her regular clubers would come pay her a visit.
They called themselves the "Core Group" and came from an area about an hour away from Raleigh called Cameron. They were a group of wrestlers, a couple of whom were fairly well-known, named Matt and Jeff Hardy, and their life-long friend Shannon Moore and their girlfriends who came in every Thursday and were getting continuously closer to Valerie. They always asked for her by name and would include her in some of their antics. Shannon especially would always find a way to get her out onto the dance floor. A couple of times Jeff's long-time girlfriend, Beth, invited her to their house for a bonfire and party. It was these actions that set Tyler off. He wanted her to no longer have anything to do with the group, but they were her friends. The only ones she had in North Carolina that weren't Tyler's friends that she pretended to like, or that weren't over two hours away and constantly busy. They were all kinds of fun and Valerie enjoyed hanging out with them, but for some reason Tyler couldn't stand them. An outsider's opinion would have said that Tyler was jealous because of the connections she was making without him around. Others may think that he was scared because he had moved down there to be with her because he had been with her for so long and he didn't want to lose her. He claimed, however, that it was because he felt that she was too close to these guys, even though they were all basically taken, and that she was going to have an affair behind his back, and he was going to have none of it.
Last night he had seemed to lose it. "Do you like it better when you're fucking them? Huh, just because they are famous is the sex better with them?" He had screamed at her with such a force she thought that her entire apartment shook. She could smell the grotesque and overbearing stench of Jack Daniels on his breath. "If I ever catch you even looking at them, I swear to God, I'll kill you!" He said as he walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him. This was the normal argument, at least before the name calling it had been, and he normally would call first thing in the morning and leave a voice-mail apology on her cell phone, but this morning there was no apology, and that is when the real fear began to envelop her entire body like a sleeping bag.
She pulled into the employee parking of the Last Stage club and bar where she was employed. After shifting her red Trans Am into park she stepped out and looked around for that familiar hunter green F-150. When she didn't see it anywhere in sight she finally fell that it was safe enough to venture into the building. She couldn't explain why she was so worried about seeing Tyler, bit nonetheless it was a feeling that she couldn't shake.
As she walked out on to the floor she said her hellos to those that she was close to as she searched all around for Veronica. Veronica had the side of the building farthest away from where the "Core Group" sat and where she hoped they also wouldn't be able to see her. The fear that was coursing through truly terrified her. She felt like Tyler was there in the building. Watching her every move waiting for her to make a mistake, but she then thought about how stupid it sounded even to herself and went back on her search for Veronica. As she was searching she had been on tunnel vision and didn't even notice him come upon her. He set his hand on her shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Hey Val, didn't you see us all waving at you? We got here early tonight," Jeff Hardy looked her dead in the eyes and his calm, sweet smiles always made her happy, and feel safe. Forgetting all about finding Veronica she walked to the table anxious to get a bear hug from Matt, tell Beth about the new dress she had just got for their fourth of July cookout that they had invited her to, and to see the new tattoo Shannon had been raving about, you know the one that took almost a week to have done.
After formalities and admiring Beth's exquisite new teal earrings that Jeff had gotten for her from one of the Indian reservations in Arizona on his trip there that past week she began to start taking their drink orders.
As she sat down the last Budweiser she said, "Here you go," and of course Matt had to get in his little comment about her British accent.
"How much longer is that Brit accent goin' to stick? I mean, hell, you've been in Raleigh nearly a year and it's still there," he laughed his big, boastful laugh.
"Well I lived in Michigan for twelve years and it stuck there so my assumption is never."
"Oh don't let North Carolina fool you, the Southern tongue is contagious," snickered Matt.
"You know her accent has changed a lil' bit since she first met us," guffawed Beth taking a sip of her drink.
"Oh, I wouldn't quite say that," interrupted Tyler, lacing his hands around Val's waist squeezing tighter than Valerie thought was necessary. A hush came over the table as Tyler kissed her cheek; a contemptible look on his face. "If you all don't mind, by the way that is ya'll in hick," he grinned, "I need to speak to Val alone in private. Now," he said pulling her away from the table.
Shannon turned to Jeff and Matt and in only the way that Shannon could say it, "did ya'll hear what that Abercrombie and Bitch just called us?" Usually they all would have burst out laughing, but something about him rubbed everyone seated at the table the wrong way. They all knew he was the biggest doucher in North Carolina, maybe even in the East Coast. The fact of the matter was that they had started a pool on when Valerie was going to dump his scum ass and send him packing, and crying, to his mommy in Michigan.
As the rest of the group began to make their feelings about Tyler known, Jeff felt an alarm going off in his stomach. He had seen something that he was certain that the rest of the group hadn't seen, and that was the fear that was written all over Val's face, and echoed like a scream in her cerulean eyes as Tyler had basically dragged her towards the bathroom area. He had watched her be unwillingly dragged away from the comfort of friends. After about five minutes had passed and Val had still not returned Jeff couldn't wait any longer. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach and it was unrelenting. He knew that this wasn't going to end well, and he felt it his brotherly duty to make sure the girl he and Matt thought of as a baby sister was okay. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her that he himself could have prevented. So he stood up and kissed Beth on the cheek and said he would be right back.
He wasn't one-hundred percent sure where they had gone, but he knew that they had been making their way to the restrooms. He sauntered into the men's room and quietly called, "Valerie? Valerie, are you in here?" Not getting a response he began to duck his head to look under the bathroom stalls finding nothing except a man too old for words alone in a stall with a Victoria's Secret catalogue covered in something that Jeff was hoping wasn't what he thought it was, and he prayed that the images wouldn't come back to haunt his dreams down the road. He then came up with the thought, would Tyler be ballsy enough to take her into the Women's restroom? Already knowing the answer he left the repugnant old man and his magazine and stormed out the door.
He walked the two steps forward and then stared down the oak door with the engraved plate that said WOMEN. He thought about what legally could happen to him for walking into a women's restroom and looking under all of the stall doors and thought, consequences be damned, it was his baby sister. He grabbed the brass handle and tried to turn it, only to find it locked. He knew in that moment that this was not going to end well.
Tyler dragged Valerie into the women's bathroom and locked the door behind him. She tried to get away from him by running into the first stall, slamming it so hard that the lock flew off of the door and onto the ground. Her last means of a barrier was keeping the door shut and usuing her body as the block to keep it shut while he pushed at it from the opposite side. Her small frame; however, was no match for his six foot, two-hundred pound football playing physique that was trying to force its way into the stall. When he had made his way in he backed her into a corner of the stall bending her backwards over the porcelain toilet.
"What did I tell you I would do if I caught you talking to them again?" His eyes had never looked so menacing before. "You wanna fuck now? So you come looking for them? I know how it is, but nobody is better than me in the sack and before I break your neck I will prove it to you. Just tell me, which one were you going to screw, huh? The little retard with the Mohawk? No, the meathead with the tacky UNC hat, no wait, I've got it, the freak with the rainbow hair. Or maybe because you are such a whore you were just going to do all three of them at once. Doesn't matter anyways, because Ima show 'em all up anyways," he growled at her as he shoved her skirt up as far as it would go. Then he yanked her panties down and ripped her white blouse open. Valerie heard his pants hit the floor as the shock started to take control of her body, freezing her in place, not allowing her body to even twitch. He spun her exposed body around and smashed her face against the brick wall. She tried to push back with her bent arms, but it was a useless attempt. He bent her over more as she felt him stab her vulnerable and unwilling body. As the tears began to stream down her face she heard someone banging on the door followed by Jeff's familiar voice shouting her name, but before she could scream for him to help her Tyler's hands covered her mouth as he still pulsed inside of her. "Say anything, to anybody, and I will come back and finish what I started." He pulled out as the sound of Jeff at the door stopped, and with her hope of being saved, not that there was much to save anymore. Tyler pulled up his pants and ran out the door like a dog, leaving Valerie lying in a heap on the floor of the stall. The enormity of what had just happened consuming her like a infinite blackness, covered in a film of scum that would never wash clean.
He began to bang at the door like crazy, asking if Valerie could hear him, but he got no reply, and his panic mode went into high gear. Not being able to tear down the solid door on his own he ran back to the table grabbing Matt by the shoulder and telling him, "Come on!"
Matt pulled back and asked, "Jeff, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Valerie, there is something wrong with Valerie! He took her into that damn bathroom, and locked the door! I need you to help me get her out!"
Beth tapped his shoulder and pointed in the direction behind Jeff. "He's not in the bathroom, he's leavin' Jeff."
"Matt just trust me on this! You and Shannon go get the bastard, talk to him, whatever, just do something to grab him."
The occupants at the table stared quizzically at him as if he were some crazed lunatic on a rampage. "Jeff you have said some crazy shit before, but this is fucked up, even for you. How do you know that something is wrong with Val?"
"Well if she is so fine, why is he running out of here, and she is still not back yet, now just be my brother and don't let the bitch get away!" and with that he ran towards the restrooms, dragging Beth with him as he went.
He went slamming through the door and began his search, and he didn't have to look far to see the devastation that Tyler had caused. In the first stall he found a crying, heaving heap that he knew as his baby sister. Seeing the state that the bastard had left her in he ripped off his plaid shirt and covered her in it. When she saw him she sat up and collapsed in his arms. Tears streaming down her face and landing in off-white stains on his white wife-beater as he held her close; his heart breaking because he could've prevented this, and all he could find to say was, "I'll get that sonovabitch, I swear to God." And he hugged her with all of his might.
Beth was behind him and laid a hand on Val's back for comfort. "Jeff, Matt just called, he wants to talk to you."
"Did you tell him?"
"Not everything, just that Valerie is really hurt, so he and Shannon have Tyler, and he's fighting. He wants to know what to do with him."
Jeff thought about it a second. Then he looked down at the hurt and worn woman in his arms and suddenly it all clicked. "Tell him to stuff him in the Accord. I'll be right out." He lifted Valerie's chin so she could look at him, but she closed her eyes.
"I'm too ashamed. I don't deserve to be looked at," she cried through the tears.
"This was not your fault, if anything," he paused, "it was mine." Again he hugged her to let her know that he was there for her. "Now I am going to go with Matt and Shannon, but Beth is going to take you to the hospital now, and call the police. Okay?" Then you are going to come stay with us for a little while, okay?"
She looked up at him and in the most vehement tone she could muster in her current state she replied, "No."
"Val, you have to call the police, and what if he got you pregnant? You need to go," coaxed Beth who now was also on the floor holding her.
"No, I can't let my mother find out, she wouldn't believe it anyways. Tyler is God in her eyes. Besides I am so embarrassed, I don't think I could stand trial," she sobbed into Jeff's shoulder.
Jeff and Beth looked at each other. They knew Valerie well enough, she was as stubborn as a mule, and if she couldn't go through with it, she wasn't going to, but just to say they tried Jeff asked one more time, " are you sure? We'll all be there through everything for you…"
Valerie cut in, "No, I just want to forget that this ever happened and leave it at that."
"Val, you can't just forget it, it's not a problem that is just going to go away," pleaded Jeff, "You need to have some kind of closure."
"The only closure I want is to see Tyler in pieces," she whispered from Jeff's shoulder.
"Not knowing what else to say Jeff simply answered, "Then that's what I'll do," and he passed Val to Beth and headed to meet Matt and Shannon in the car.
An hour passed as the trio drove from Raleigh to Jeff's home in Cameron. They came to a halt in front of a dilapidated building in the backwoods of Jeff and Matt's conjoined properties. Through the whole ride they heard Tyler's cries to be let out, and they were of course ignored. Jeff's anger burned like an inferno and his blood boiled over with the adrenaline rush from what he was going to do to Tyler entered his brain. He could beat the shit out of Tyler, but he wanted to do something else. He wanted to put the same fear in Tyler that he had put in Val. He had told Matt and Shannon what Tyler had done on the ride back, and he had told them how everyone was sworn to secrecy at Val's request. It was a request that was understood. That fear that Valerie had felt lit a fire in the group, and as the transmission was thrown into park, the adrenaline rush once again took over their bodies.
Jeff was at the back of the car first, practically ripping the trunk off of its hinges. Tyler looked up and saw the three of them, but his expression of contempt didn't change until he saw Jeff's face. Nobody had seen Jeff make a face as vicious and menacing as he was making right then. Tyler whimpered, "Oh Shit," as Jeff grabbed him by the front of the shirt and threw him against the side of the building.
"Jeff's green eyes drilled at Tyler like steel. Jeff let Tyler's feet hit the ground as he said, "did you think you were going to get away with what you did?"
"What do you guys want? Money, I can get it for you. My mom, she's got connections, let me just make on …" Jeff cut Tyler off by grabbing his throat.
"We know what you did, and while she may not want to hurt you, but the funny thing is that she's not here to stop us," he paused, "from hurting your fucking doucebag ass," spat Matt yanking on Tyler's medium-length California blonde hair.
In the building they all could hear Shannon rummaging around for something while he chanted his patented, "Honkey gon' die, Honkey gon' die."
"Who's the Honkey that's going to die," croaked Tyler pretending he didn't know, trying his best to hide the fear that was crawling inside of him, but Jeff saw it, and it pleased him.
"Do you know where we are mother fucker?" Matt asked tilting his head to the side.
"The Hardy Childhood home? How the fuck would I know, now lets stop before you guys do something stupid and get arrested," replied Tyler.
"Oh, haha, that's funny, that 's cute, but your dead wrong. Jeff why don't you explain to Limp Dick here where we are."
"Well, this place here," he mocked in an overly Southern accent, "this place here is our little home-made gun range. At least ten miles from any other houses except our houses, and our dad's, and pretty much incapable of being found unless you already know where to find it, so I am going to say that the chances of us getting caught are still much smaller than you leaving here without a scratch," he laughed. He thought telling Tyler where they were would get the reaction from Tyler that he sought, but it turned out that the criminal rapist had more resolve than he thought.
"Yeah right, you guys wouldn't shoot me, and even if you did, somebody would notice I was missing and come looking for me."
"Hey Matt."
"Yeah Jeff?"
"The police are here trying to find Val's for lack of a better term, ass-wipe boyfriend, have you seen him?"
"Why no Jeff, he came by yesterday with some friend of his and they went for a walk in the vast backwoods, and he never came back. You know that happens a lot around here, people disappearing without a trace."
Just as they finished speaking Shannon came waltzing out of the house with Matt's shotgun in tow. "Jeff, man, mah damn T-9 jammed again, goin' ta have ta use the shotgun. Messier, but more affective and you'll use less amo." This brought the fear that Jeff searched for closer to the surface, but he wanted more before the real pain began to start.
"Shannon, throw it here, did you clean it?"
"You think I was in there playin' with mahself?" Jeff caught the brown handled gun by the black barrel and put it beneath Tyler's stubble covered chin. The same fear that had shown in Valerie's eyes now screaming out of Tyler's.
"Now how does it feel to be so scared that you can't even think straight? To feel your imminent death come over you like a cloud on a sunny day?" He cocked the shot gun and shot into the treeline.
"Don't you think that your dad will think it odd that you guys are out shooting so late?" quivered Tyler.
"No, my dad usually finds it weirder when we aren't shooting at midnight," replied Matt. Jeff had waited long enough, he looked at Matt and Matt shook his head and Jeff hit Tyler in the face as hard as he could with the gun barrel breaking it and sending a splash of blood on Jeff's shirt.
Tyler fell to the ground and was on his hands and knees. Jeff bent down and lifted up Tyler's face by his bloodied chin. "The scars we're going to give you tonight are only physical, the pain only temporary, but the scars you left on Valerie are hidden and the pain permanent. The torture you put her through can't be taken away, and I just pray to God that one day you feel the same pain that you caused her." Jeff hit him offsides the head again with the gun barrel. "Just remember," he began to quote what Valerie had been told by Tyler, "if you ever tell anybody, ever, or come within one-hundred feet of Valerie, we, too, will come and finish the job. Understand?"
Tyler shook his head and Jeff knocked his ass out with the butt of the gun while Matt started to kick the shit out of his midsection. Then when they were finished they dropped him off at the local hospital and told the staff, of whom were very big Hardy Boyz supporters, that they found him behind a local bar and wanted to give him a ride to safety. Tyler was never seen nor heard of, in North Carolina, again.