Chapter Seven

God fucking damn...my head...that fucking asshole...more than an asshole...a MONSTER...who knows what he would've done to me...I was so frickin' stupid...I had bad feelings about the whole thing and I didn't trust myself enough to listen...Nearly got myself killed...shit...this incessant beeping noise isn't helping my headache! Where am I...

Lupe's eyes fluttered open. The brightness of the room blurred her vision and made her head hurt more. A high pitched, rhythmic beeping noise echoed throughout the room. Lupe let out a small groan. Almost immediately there was movement beside her, as a blurry figure came into view.

"Heya, Lu...how's your head?"

Male voice. The same male voice from the elevator? She couldn't quite tell. She blinked a few times and slowly her vision adjusted. Blue eyes. Friendly blue eyes. And elaborately gelled hair.

"...Zach?" she whispered, her voice raspy.

"Alright, cool, no memory loss! The doctors were scaring me, saying they weren't sure what damage might have been done to your brain!"

Lupe sat up with a sigh and gazed down at an IV drip that was stuck in her forearm. She peered back up at Zach with questioning eyes.

"Oh I...forgot what that was for...something about nutrients or vitamins...since you lost blood, you know?"

Lupe nodded and brought her free hand to her head. There was a bandage covering the spot where John had punched her. He had obviously broken the skin judging by all the blood she remembered.

A tall, middle-aged man in white scrubs stepped into the room with a smile on his face. Lupe glanced at Zach, who gave her a reassuring nod.

"Its great to see that you've woken up, uh..." the doctor glanced at her chart. "Guadalupe! I'm Dr. Hansen." he reached out his hand and Lupe shook it lightly.

"She remembered me! That's good right?" Zach chimed in.

"That's very good. Let me just take a look here..."

Dr. Hansen shined a light into both of Lupe's eyes, examining them closely. He made a satisfied clucking nose in his throat as he stuffed the flashlight back into his pocket.

"It looks like everything upstairs is a-ok, we'll just run a scan to make sure before you leave."

"I can leave?" Lupe rasped, the sound causing her to cringe.

"Oh yes, your throat. There is some significant bruising of the larynx, some of which is unfortunately irreparable...so you're going to have to get used to a bit of a raspiness in your voice from now on...but yes, once we are ready to scan your brain, you are free to go!"

"Ok...thank you Doctor..." Lupe mumbled.

"You are welcome...you've got to be careful with those big dogs from now on. Don't want you getting hurt again."

Lupe furrowed her eyebrows as the doctor exited the room. She turned her gaze to Zach.

"Big dogs? What big dogs?"

"Uh...well, um...it's nothing really."

"Zach..."

"...He thinks you were mauled by a rottweiler..."

"...What? No, that's not what happened Zach-"

"I know, it-"

"You need to tell him what happened, I was-"

"I know! Lupe, I...I know...what happened."

Lupe stared at Zach, who sat with his chin resting in his hands, his brows knitted together with guilt.

"You know? You know, but you didn't tell them?"

"...No..."

Well aint this some bullshit!

"I'll tell the doctor myself..."

Lupe reached out to press the "call doctor" button on the wall, but Zach covered it with his hand. Lupe glared at him, his eyes filled with worry.

"You can't tell them, Lupe."

"And why not?"

"Because...because they won't believe you..."

"Like hell they won't!"

"Lupe, I am serious! They will not believe you! They didn't believe it before, they won't believe it now..."

Lupe's eyes widened. She remembered something. It was something that was mentioned in the penthouse...was it John? Said something about "the last one". The last what?

"Zach..."

"...Hm..."

"...Has this...happened...before...?"

Zach couldn't manage to maintain eye contact with her. He wrung his hands and tapped his foot nervously. Lupe reached out and placed a hand on his knee.

"Please..."

Zach let out a large huff and rubbed his hands together as if he was warming them, finally bringing his eyes to meet hers. She could feel the guilt and discomfort coming off of him in waves. He pursed his lips and nodded slightly.

"Yeah...twice..."

Lupe's heart dropped. She stared into space, trying so hard to fathom the idea of this happening to two other young women before.

"But...how?"

"I don't know how...you're the only one to..."

"Only one to what?"

"...To come out of it."

Lupe couldn't believe what she was hearing. Was she still asleep and just having some kind of nightmare? Had none of this actually happened?

"You...You're saying John...killed the other-"

"NO! No, that is NOT what I'm saying! I just, I...I don't know what happened to them...none of us do...everything was fine and then we just never saw or heard from them again...both after they had started seeing John..."

"Started? They went with him more than once?"

"You haven't?"

"No! This was my first time with him! And he nearly killed me!"

"Well...I guess that's a testament as to why you're still here then...they endured the abuse until they could no longer take it, and then when they tried getting the law involved...poof. They disappeared."

"How did they just disappear?"

"They just did...think about it, Lu...John Cena is the face of a multi-billion dollar company...if it turns out that the face is ugly and rotten and dirty, then no one is going to want anything to do with the rest of the body...Cena's reputation is whiter than snow...not because he is this innocent, noble, respectable man...but because that's what his image is...if something were to come around and dirty his reputation, it would mean hell for the WWE..."

Lupe's eyes filled with tears. She blinked them away as she chewed at her lip.

"So the WWE had these two women removed because they didn't want to lose their highly-profitable mascot?" she muttered.

"That's the theory we've come up with at least..."

Wow...I knew already that money corrupted people but...this is too much...these are lives...

"Well...thank you, then...for covering up for me with the dog story..."

"Oh, I can't take the credit for that..."

"Why not? You basically saved my life..."

Zach gazed at her with narrowed eyes, his lips twisted in a confused grimace.

"Whoa...I guess there was a bit of memory loss..."

"What...? What are you talking about?"

"Lupe, I wasn't the one who brought you to the hospital...he just called me up to look after you."

"He...?"

"Punk."

Lupe's entire universe froze.

"...Punk?"

"Yeah...he found you in the elevator back at the Marriott...somehow he just knew what had happened, and rushed you here himself..."

Lupe whipped off the bedsheets and pointed a shaky finger at the door.

"Is he out there? Is he waiting outside?"

"What? No, no, he's gone!"

"We have to go back to the hotel, I need to find-"

"Lupe, stop! C'mon, get back into the bed..."

Zach helped her back into the hospital bed and covered her bare legs with the bedsheets again. He patted her knee softly as she gazed up at him wild-eyed.

"He's not at the hotel anymore. I already tried calling up to his room, but he had checked out already. He's not picking up his cell phone either. He's probably halfway to the next town by now."

Lupe stood silent, and only nodded. Her mind was spinning, trying to take in and register all of the information she had just received.

It was Punk...in the elevator...that damn peppermint gum, how could I not catch that?

"Alrighty!" Dr. Hansen stuck his head into the room. "We are all ready to get your lil' brain all scanned up, and then you'll be set to go!"

Lupe inhaled and nodded, smiling softly.

"I'm ready to go."

A/N: We're in the final stretch ya'll! I really hope you guys are enjoying this story! Your reviews mean a lot to me! I'll be updating again within the next few days!