Our heroes enter the theater. Hunter leads the way carrying a carton of milk. Shawn, Bret, and Sean follow behind slowly because they are carrying their trays.
Hunter: (enters their usual row and goes to the very end, near the wall and sits)
Shawn: (goes and means to sit on Hunter's left, but he can't lower his seat without dropping his food) A little help, pal.
Hunter: (lowers the seat for Shawn, but says nothing)
Shawn: (sits down and Hunter takes away his hand) Thanks. (his tray nicely balances on the arm rests)
Bret: (is able to get his seat down with one hand while holding his tray in another - though it helps that he hasn't poured his milk yet - once settled; he lowers Sean's seat)
Sean: (sits down, to Bret) Thanks. (Bret moves his arm away and Sean grabs his spoon to dig into his cereal...of course, his milk has now turned rainbow colors because of the marshmellows, he says happily -) Ooh...colors!
Bret: (shakes his head at Sean's childishness while asking for milk) Can you pass the milk, Hunter?
Hunter: (passes the milk to Shawn)
Shawn: (takes the milk) Here...(passes the milk to Bret)
Bret: (pours the milk on his Raisin Bran and then sets the carton on his tray)
Shawn: (after watching Sean relishing his cereal and after taking a few bites of his own, he stops - he lets the amount of food on his spoon fall back into the bowl, he is dismayed)
Hunter: (looks to Shawn, still speaks all his lines matter of factly) Something wrong.
Shawn: I'm not much for soggy cereal. (grabs his tray and stands)
Bret: What are you doing?
Shawn: Just this...(leans over the seat directly in front of him and places his tray on that chair's armrests, grabs the Honey Nut Cheerios box and sits back down...digs into the box with his hand and eats the dry cereal he takes out of it)
Bret: (who watched Shawn the whole time, shakes his head at Shawn) You're picking that up when we leave.
Shawn: (smartly) Yes, Mom.
Before Bret can reply, a message from Marie comes up on the screen.
Marie: Shawn will pick up his tray before he leaves if he knows what's good for him!
Shawn: (gulps, nervously) Yes, mam.
Marie: You took your sweet time getting in here after the alarm first sounded.
Sean: We needed breakfast.
Marie: And are we finally settled?
Bret: Yes.
Shawn: Are you?
Marie: What?
Shawn: Are you settled? You asked if 'we' were finally settled. 'We' would include you too. If not, you would have said, 'And are you finally settled?' So...are 'you' settled?
Marie: If you could see my head right now, it would be shaking in amazement.
Shawn: (takes this as a compliment, he amazed Marie) Thank you.
Marie: (snappily) That wasn't a compliment.
Shawn: Oh.
Marie: Now that 'you' are...settled, let's continue with Laura's fan fiction...'Invasion Of The WWE'...
Chapter 8
After Shawn called Hunter, we got the fuck out of Mark's room...and waited.
Shawn: That's smart of us. (after a moment) Of course, if we were really smart, we'd get out of the hotel completely.
About 10 minutes after Shawn called him, Hunter came down from the floor above us. He wasn't alone. He was with Vince.
Sean: That can't be good, right?
Shawn just told me that when he'd seen Hunter coming towards us, that he'd wanted to rush into Hunter's arms. Shawn hadn't cared if Mark and I knew about him and Hunter.
But when Shawn saw Vince, he stopped dead in his tracks. Maybe if Shawn had went to Hunter, the next events that happened would have been quite different.
Sean: I think we know what that means for Hunter.
Bret: He took that long sleep.
Sean: And now he's a vegetable.
Shawn: On the bright side, it will be easy for my character to break up with him. (looks to Hunter, jokingly) I knew you'd never leave your wife.
Hunter: (straight faced) It's only a fan fic, Shawn.
Shawn: (raises an eyebrow at Hunter's lack of a proper comeback)
Shawn asked Hunter, "What's Vince doing here?"
"You sounded like you needed a lot of help," Hunter replied, "So I brought him."
Sean: Proving that you and Vince are two peas in a pod.
Bret & Shawn: (groan)
Sean: You knew someone had to say it at some point.
Vince eyed myself and Shawn. "Bret and Shawn look like they're in one piece."
I looked at Shawn. Aside from the bruise on Shawn's left cheek, courtesy of me; he was fine.
Sean: Oh, the author's referring back to that one, brief spurt of violence.
Shawn: When Bret hit me...I hope I get to return the gesture.
"So, what's going on?" asked Vince.
I exchanged looks with Shawn and Mark.
Mark was the one that answered. "Earlier tonight, I found a body in my room."
Vince said, "A body? What sort of body?"
"What do you mean; what sort of body?
Sean: (as Vince) A body of water?
A human body," Mark exclaimed. "Anyway, I called Bret. Shawn overheard us from his room and came over. We agreed that the body wasn't exactly normal and we agreed to watch it."
"You didn't just call the police?" Hunter asked, like we hadn't thought of that before.
Shawn: This fic's redundancy is just killing me.
Hunter: It's strange - considering that Shawn, in the story, overheard Bret and Mark from inside his room - that no one in any of the other rooms has called the police. You guys are only out in the hallway.
Mark answered, "Like I said the body wasn't normal. And just a few minutes ago..."
How could Mark describe what had just happened to him?
Sean: (as The Undertaker) I got raped.
"The body attacked me..." Mark stated.
Sean: I think 'rape' is the better word for what happened.
"With tentacles."
Vince repeated, "Tentacles?"
"Like an octopus?" said Hunter.
Bret: (to the others) I don't remember the fic saying that there were only eight tentacles with suckers on them, do any of you?
Shawn & Sean: (shake their heads no)
"No," Shawn protested, "They were more hair like...and slimy. They were all over Mark..." Shawn started to look sick just talking about it. "They were even in his ears, nose...and mouth."
Sean: (as Shawn)And one was even in his anus.
Bret & Shawn: (yelling) Kid!
Sean: (surprised at being yelled at) What? It went with my rape comment from earlier. Excuse me for continuity.
"Is the body still in there?" asked Vince, looking to Mark's room.
"On the coffee table..." Mark said, "Where we left it."
Shawn: What were we supposed to do with it?
Vince put out his hand to Mark, "Hand me your keycard."
"You're going in there?" Mark asked.
"Yes," Vince said, still with his hand out. "Your key card."
As I saw Mark hand his keycard over to Vince, I said, "What if the body attacks you?"
Bret: Why would my character care if Vince were attacked?
Looking back, even without knowing what I know now, I don't know why I was worried about Vince...but I was.
Bret: I take it that I'm never getting an explanation as to why I would care about Vince.
Shawn: (wanting Bret to move past this) You're a decent human being, let's leave it at that.
"I'm not afraid," Vince said, moving Mark's door.
"I'll go in with you," Hunter said to Vince. Hunter then moved towards Vince.
Shawn stepped to Hunter and said insistently, "Hunter, don't go."
"I'll be okay, Shawn," stated Hunter with, what I know now,
Sean: (as Bret) That I didn't know then.
was fake reassurance.
Shawn: (turning his head to Hunter) Hunter, are you all right?
Hunter: Fine. Why?
Shawn: You're awfully quiet. Bret, myself and the Kid are doing all the misting.
Hunter: And we're taking forever to get through this fic.
Shawn: (eyes his friend, troubled)
Then, Vince and Hunter went into Mark's room leaving myself, Shawn and Mark in the hall.
Vince and Hunter were in the room for about seven minutes...
Sean: Could have been closer to ten. (as Bret gives him a look) I'm sure you weren't wearing a watch.
and then we heard...a scream.
Sean: If that line was supposed to make me feel anything, I don't.
Bret: I think screams are one of those things you need to hear in order to feel.
"That was Hunter!" Shawn exclaimed.
Mark went to his room door and...couldn't get in. His door was locked and Vince had his card.
Hunter: I will say that the author remembered her earlier plot points.
Mark started to bang on the door, "Vince! Hunter! Open the door!" He stopped banging suddenly and leaned his head against the door. Then, Mark looked at us and said softly, "Do you guys hear something?"
Shawn and I leaned against the door. I heard what sounded like a punch and things crashing.
Sean: (frustratedly) Figures. There's major violence going on and it's being done behind a closed door.
Mark started banging on the door again, "Someone open the door!"
Just when I thought that Mark might have to go get another key card, which when used would reveal Vince and Hunter's dead or unconsious bodies...Mark's door opened.
At the door, stood Vince, but he looked messed up compared to how he looked before. His hair wasn't smooth and he had a hand on his lower back.
Shawn: (as Vince in a pained voice) Oh, my lateral collateral area.
Bret: Stole that from Gorilla Monsoon, didn't you?
"What happened?" I asked.
Before Vince could reply, Shawn pushed the door open wider...and cried out, "Hunter!"
Hunter was on the floor, with a handkerchief to his nose. I also saw, now not too far from him, the coffee table. It had been overturned.
Sean: (confused) The coffee table hit Hunter in the nose?
Bret: Considering how big Hunter's nose is, how could the coffee table miss it?
Shawn: (to Hunter when his friend doesn't react) Aren't you going to get angry at that?
Hunter: No.
Shawn: (looks to Bret and Sean who look back at Shawn, something isn't right)
Shawn rushed into the room and knelt down to Hunter.
Shawn told me that when he got to Hunter, that he could see blood on the handkerchief.
Sean: So the pod people bleed red in this fic.
Shawn: Why does that interest you?
Sean: Because there were three 'Invasion' movies made...well, four actually, but I haven't seen the last one yet...anyway, the first movie was black and white, so you couldn't tell what color the blood was. In the second movie the blood was red, but in the third, the blood was greenish.
Hunter: I guess that when the pods copy a person, that they copy all parts of that person completely...including blood.
"Are you all right?" Shawn asked Hunter.
"Your body bloodied my nose," Hunter said.
"It woke up?" questioned Mark, who now, as I had, had moved into the room. Vince came and stood by me.
"That's right," Vince nodded. "While Hunter and I examined the body, it woke up and in a rage, it pushed me."
Shawn: (as Vince) In the same way that Bret pushed me after his loss to Psycho Sid just before Wrestlemania 13.
Bret: Why'd you bring that up?
Shawn: It was the first thing that popped into my head when Vince said he got pushed.
"I went to hit it," Hunter said, "but it blocked me and punched me in the nose, knocking me down too."
"Then, it threw the coffee table at us," Vince stated.
Sean: Like the table, the author is leaving no detail unturned.
"Where is it?" I insisted.
"It went out the window," Hunter said, pointing.
Bret: There's a detail that was unturned before.
Shawn: What do you mean?
Bret: There's a window.
Shawn: Yeah...most hotel rooms have them.
Bret: Yes, but in an earlier chapter, didn't it say that Mark's room had a screen door?
Shawn: It also has a living area with a couch. Excluding suites, how many regular hotel rooms do you know have living areas?
Sean: Maybe Laura confused writing about Mark's hotel room with writing about his home?
I, Mark and Shawn looked to the window across from the couch that Hunter pointed to. The window was open. I went to it.
"The body went out the window," I said, "and what? Jumped five stories to it's death?" I leaned my head outside to better look out the window. It was dark, but I could just see the street below. There wasn't a body on it.
Sean: (to Bret) I think you would have rather seen a (enunciates his next words) Twisted. Broken. Bloodied. Body. (speaks normally again) Splattered against the pavement than nothing.
Bret: (eyeing Sean, thinking how morbid the Kid can be sometimes, he says sarcastically -) Oh yeah, that's exactly what I would have rather seen.
"Do you see it?" Mark asked as I was out of the window.
"No." I said. I took a moment to check for any way that the body could make it to the street safely. There wasn't. "There's nothing out there."
"It's gone," Vince replied.
I grew angry suddenly. None of tonight was making any sense.
Shawn: (to Bret) At least your character has enough sense to know it's not making any sense.
I spoke directly to Vince, "Gone how? It jumped out of the hotel, fell five stories to the street...and got up and walked away?"
Sean: Superman could have done it.
Hunter: (extremely matter of factly) Superman would have flown.
"Stranger things have happened," said Vince, ignoring my anger. "The body could have been high on adrenaline. As you know, adrenaline does amazing things for a person. Allows one to survive situations, that without adrenaline, one could not."
Bret: Yes, but the person would still be injured.
I wasn't buying it, "I might agree with you if the body only had twenty feet to fall, but we're about fifty feet up."
Shawn: (to Bret) How would you know that?
Bret: One story is approximately ten feet high. We're five stories up. 5 stories times 10 feet equals 50 feet.
Shawn: Oh.
"The body could have also been on drugs," Vince said, "the point is you don't know much about the body."
"I know that it seemed lifeless," I replied, "that it was covered in white hairs. That it had no finger prints or individual markings...and that it was starting to look like Mark."
"What do you mean?" Vince said.
Shawn: If we're about to retread everything from the previous chapter, I really am going to fall asleep.
Hunter: That wouldn't be such a bad thing.
Shawn: (looks to Hunter, suddenly uncomfortable, sits up straighter)
"The body was approximately the same height and weight as Mark," I answered. "and when it was attacking Mark, the body had Mark's face."
Vince seemed to think for a moment. Then, he said, "All right. Let's consider what you just said. 'It seemed lifeless' - a drug could explain that. 'Covered in white hairs' - side affect of some drug or some natural physical condition or he fell in something before getting here..."
Sean: Fell in what? A tub of white cat hair?
I interrupted, "How'd he get here? How'd he get inhere?"
"Who knows?" Vince said, "Mark was asleep, so the body could have come in the door...from another hotel room maybe.
Bret: I thought it took a key card to get through the door.
Shawn: (to Hunter) So much for the author's earlier plot points.
Hunter: The body could have forced the door open some other way.
The body could have been about the same height and weight as Mark. You don't know for sure. You're not a doctor."
"I'm a pretty good judge of height and weight," I exclaimed. "I've seen a lot of bodies."
Shawn: (holding back laughter, to Bret) That line doesn't sound right coming from you at all.
Bret: I think my character's just trying to say that he's been around a lot of wrestlers of all shapes and sizes and that he's observant.
Shawn: Sure he is.
"Yes," said Vince, "I know you have. Which means, you have a lot of body types in your head."
"So..." I said, wanting to know where Vince was going with this.
"So," Vince continued, "you saw a body that was Mark's same height and weight...and your mind did the rest."
I shook my head, "No. No way. I'm not crazy."
Sean: (to Bret) And now you know, neither was Mark.
"I never said you were crazy," Vince corrected, "you just have a vivid imagination. You've always had a special way to see things."
Shawn: (to Bret) Your special way of seeing things in your head has come back to haunt you.
Bret: (protesting) I see matches in my head. Not my friend's faces on lifeless bodies.
"Not things that aren't there!" I said. "The body had no fingerprints..."
This time, Vince interrupted, "Maybe it didn't. Maybe it took them off with acid."
Bret & Shawn: Ouch!
Sean: That acid line was taken from the first 'Invasion' movie.
I exhaled and closed my eyes. I didn't know what to think anymore. "Shawn, you saw what I saw, right?"
"I don't know, Bret..." Shawn answered. He was still kneeling by his sitting lover. "I was more concerned with waking Mark up then with what the body was doing. You got a better look at it than I did." He paused and looked at Vince. "Maybe Vince is right and there is a sensible explanation to all of this."
Bret: (to Shawn) Oh, sure, take Vince's side.
Shawn: You expect me to lie about what I didn't see?
"Mark?" I said looking to The Undertaker with hope...but knowing somehow that it was useless asking.
Mark said, as I feared he would, "I didn't see my face on the body. And during the attack, I was pretty out of it." He rubbed his forehead and eyes. "Still feel kind of out of it too."
Sean: Mark's got a pod-invasion-induced hangover.
"You're exhausted. That's all," Vince proclaimed. "In fact, I suggest we all try to get some sleep."
Hunter: It's good advice.
Sean: (looking over to Hunter) Are you nuts? It's deadly advice.
Mark looked around his room, "I don't know if I can sleep in here..."
"Of course not," Vince agreed, "come up to my room. You can have the couch."
Bret: Just what Mark wants to see...another couch.
"I don't want to intrude upon you and Linda," Mark said.
Vince shook his head, "You won't be intruding. And Linda won't mind. She'll even make you breakfast in the morning."
Sean: Mark will be one of the family by then.
Shawn: I don't suppose there's any chance that Mark will say no.
Mark considered this, "All right. Thanks."
Bret: (answering Shawn's last comment) Apparently not.
Hunter: (to Bret) I don't see you or Shawn offering Mark a place to stay.
"Bret, Shawn, Hunter..." said Vince, "you three are welcome to breakfast too."
Sean: The more the merrier.
Hunter: (a little eerily in his agreement) Yes.
Sean: (looks at Bret and grips the Hitman's arm)
Bret: (looks down at Sean's hand and back up to the Kid's face) Kid...
Sean: (trying to gesture with his head towards Hunter)
"What time?" Hunter asked.
"Let's say..." Vince thought, "eight. That should be plenty of time...for everyone to get some sleep."
Sean: (with a tinge of fear in his throat) Time for everyone to be taken over.
"Sounds good," Hunter said. He started to stand up.
Shawn started to help Hunter up.
Hunter said to Shawn as he was being helped, "I'm all right." As Hunter was on his feet, "You don't have to be so concerned about me."
"But I am concerned," Shawn said with hurt in his voice.
Hunter: Shawn, your character is not doing a good job of keeping your relationship with mine a secret from Vince.
Shawn: (who's noticed that Sean has a hand on Bret's arm) Yeah, and you're doing too good of a job. (puts a hand on Bret's other arm)
Hunter, looking at Shawn, said, "I'll take you back to your room."
"I can make it," Shawn asserted.
Shawn: A yeah for me.
Hunter insisted, "I'll stay with you."
Shawn was surprised and you could tell delighted, "Really?"
Shawn: (to his character) Don't get suckered in.
Hunter nodded. He took Shawn by the arm and walked to the door.
Shawn: Damn.
Shawn stopped himself and Hunter to turn back to myself, Vince and Mark, "Good night."
Sean: (to Shawn's character) Goodbye.
Then, Hunter opened the door and he and Shawn were gone.
I also said my good nights to Mark and Vince and left the room for my own.
End of Chapter 8 of the post
Hunter: (as he slowly turns to the others) And now...(when the others can view him, they see that his eyes are emotionless, his tone cold) time to go to sleep.
Bret: (who still has the Kid and Shawn's hands on his; he tells Sean) Run.
Sean: (doesn't have to be told twice, still holding onto Bret - he jumps up, knocking his tray over - and runs)
Bret: (both pulled and up on his own - knocking his tray over - runs too)
Shawn: Sorry, Hunter...(pulled by Bret, runs also)
Sean, Bret, and Shawn run up the aisle and out the theater door as fast as they can. Hunter watches them and slowly gets up to follow.
End of Chapter 9 of the fan fic
Authors Note: I was hoping to end it at chapter 10, but the story keeps growing. Hope you liked this chapter. There will be more soon.